What we saw in Australia

•••I

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORN5A
LOS ANGELES

DU.

102.

TO

OUR FRIENDS IN AUSTRALIA,

WHOSE KINDNESS MADE OUR VISIT
A PRESENT HAPPINESS AND A BRIGHT MEMORY,

8Ee Inscribe

THIS RECORD OF OUR SOJOURN
IN THEIR PLEASANT LAND.

479183

LIB SETS

PREFACE.

THE title of our book indicates that an exhaustive account
of the Colonies we visited does not come within its scope.
Time fell very far short of permitting us to see everything
of interest contained in each ; what, however, is missing
from our description of one Province will probably be
found in our account of another, and thus, we believe, we
have touched upon almost, if not quite all, the general
features of Colonial life.

We chose the chronological as the simplest form for
our narrative ; but a slight departure from it occurs occa-
sionally when it seemed desirable to add information
subsequently acquired to that gained upon the spot. We
trust, however, that an abundant use of dates will prevent
this variation from our general plan from causing any
perplexity to our readers.

The first requirement of a book of which the " final
cause " is to give useful information, is accuracy. This

I 2

PREFACE.

we have endeavoured, with great pains, to secure, and we
trust no grave errors will be found in our pages.

We have to express our earnest thanks for help in
verifying our statements, received from Australians both
in their own country and in England. To the Agents-
General for New South Wales, Victoria, and South Aus-
tralia, our acknowledgments are especially due.

THE AUTHORS.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

Our " Apology " for the Journey — Paris — Frederic Auguste Demetz

— Cemetery at Cannes — Florence — Italian freedom — The
Madiai — Venice — Ladies at sea — P. and 0. boats — Ancona —
Brindisi — Convict gaol — Rough weather — Alexandria — Eamleh

— A Mohammedan interior — Donkey-ride in the desert — Suez

— The Canal — Burmese Embassy — Aden — Divers — Galle Har-
bour — Natives — Boats — Merchants — Washermen — Scenery

— Sunday muster — Crew — Fire Brigade — Monotony of sea-life

— Amusements — Star-gazing — Wonders of the deep — Snakes on
board — Trade winds — Pitching and rolling — Our first Australian
experience — Land sighted — King George's Sound . . Page 1

CHAPTER II.

Departure for Adelaide — Great Australian Bight — Kangaroo Island —
Geographical Divisions of the Continent — English ignorance of Aus-
tralia — Foundation of South Australia — Arrival — Adelaide 32

CHAPTER III.

Mount Lofty Range — Norton's Summit — Treatment of the Insane in
South Australia — Inebriate Asylum — A visit to Mount Barker —
Gum Trees — German Village — Captain Collet Barker — Locusts
— Kerosene — Dog's-leg Fence — A Country House .. .. 49

CHAPTER IV.

Post-office and Trans-Continental Telegraph G2

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE V.

Orphan School — Adelaide Institute — Boys' Reformatory Page 77

CHAPTEE VI.

Visit to the Lakes — Strathalbyn — Langhorne's Creek — Wellington
— The Murray — Poltalloch — The Aborigines — Cattle — Campbell
House — The Coorong — Kangaroos — Camping-out — Mail Steamer

— An Alarm — Milang — Home 95

CHAPTEE VII.

Private Theatricals — Dramatic Eeadings — A Ball — Ministerial
" crisis " — Immigration — A trip in the country — Morphett Vale

— Noarlunga — Willunga — Australian inns — Drinking habits —
High wages — Aldinga — Norman's victory — Sellick's Hill —
Native trees and flowers — Yankalilla — Port Victor — Port Elliot

— The Goolwa — The Murray mouth — Currency Creek — The
Meadows — Clarendon — Floods 121

CHAPTEE VIII.

Magill School — Destitute Asylum — Girls' Reformatory — Boarding-
out 137

CHAPTEE IX.

Opening of Parliament — Conditions of Membership — Legislative
Council — Election of President — The Governor's Speech — Town-
hall — Government Offices — City Market — Adelaide Gaol —
Labour Prison 156

CHAPTEE X.

Projected visit to Mount Remarkable — Port Lincoln — Kindness of
Fellow Travellers — Superintendent of the Mission Station — Poo-
nindie — Native School at Adelaide — Bishop of Perth — Native
Reserve — Additional Land Purchased — Agriculture — Church —
School — Recreation — Cottages — Festival — Bishop of Adelaide —
Results .... ..176

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XL

Port Augusta — Cemetery — A Picture — Goats — The Gaol — Flinders
Range — Haverhill — Bartingunya — Mount Eemarkable — Coo-
natto — Sheep-shearing — Native Languages Page 193

CHAPTEE XII.

The Areas — Laura — Jamestown — Wildongaleach — The Burra —
Hill river Farm — Clare — 'Roman Catholic College at Sevenhills —
Auburn — Saddleworth — Kapunda — Augaston — Eden Vale —
Gumeracha — Gorse — Home 212

CHAPTEE XIII.

Botanic Gardens — Flowers and Fruits — City Mission — Glenelg —
Emigration — Bushmen's Club 231

CHAPTEE XIV.

Adelaide to Melbourne — The Rip — Hobson's Bay — Sandridge —
Melbourne — Cabs — Burke and Wills — Female Pastor — Gardens
and Parks — Library and Museum — Townhall — The Block —
Voyage to Sydney — The Gap — Wreck of the 'Dunbar' — Port
Jackson — Sydney — "Southerly Burster" 258

CHAPTEE XV.

Transportation — Prison discipline — Mr. Parkes — Darlinghurst
Gaol — Industrial and Reformatory Schools — The ' Vernon '

— Biloela 273

CHAPTEE XVI.

Public Charities Commission — Sydney University — Affiliated Col-
leges— Examinations — Deaf and Dumb Asylum — Benevolent
Asylum — St. Vincent's Hospital — Botanic Gardens — Animals

— Sydney Free Library — South Head Road — North Shore —
Fortifications — Aboriginal Works of Art — Beauty of the Harbour

— Prince of Wales's Birthday — Picnic at Balmoral . . . . 288

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE XVII.

Sydney " City Arabs " — Society for the Relief of Neglected and Desti-
tute Children — Asylum — Rand wick — Visit to Paramatta — Gaol
— Catholic Orphanage — Lunatic Asylum — Tile manufactory —
Orangeries .. Page 305

CHAPTER XVIIL

Camden Park — Destruction caused by Floods — Blue Mountains —
Mount Victoria — The Warratah — Go vat's Leap . . . . 315

CHAPTEE XIX.

Ragged School — Soup-kitchen and Night-refuge — Primary Educa-
tion — Fort Street Model School — Receiving-house for Pauper
Lunatics — Sydney Infirmary — Paramatta Protestant Orphan-
age — Liverpool and Paramatta Asylums — Hyde Park Asylum
— Jewish Sabbath-School — Botany Bay — Monument to La
Perouse — Middle Harbour — Oysters — House of Assembly —
Farewell to Sydney 323

CHAPTEE XX.

Arrival at Melbourne — All England Eleven — Hot Wind — Christmas
Holidays — Toorak — Penal Servitude Commission — Larrikins —
Act of 1864 — Industrial Schools — Boarding-out — Abbotsford
Reformatory and Refuge — Voluntary Supervision .. .. 342

CHAPTEE XXL

Prisons of Victoria — Female Convicts — Establishment for Male
Convicts at Pentridge — View from Tower — Crofton System —
Coburg Boys' Reformatory — Melbourne Gaol — Industrial
School 354

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXII.

Melbourne Home for Servants — Model Lodging-house — Benevolent
Asylum — Boarding-out — St. Kilda — Boys' Industrial School at
Sunbury — Ladies' Benevolent Society Page 365

CHAPTEE XXIII.

Public Library — Museum — Art Galleries — Mothers' Meeting —
Back-slums — Industrial Home — Christmas Day — Dust-Storm —
Boxing Day — Cricket Match — Out-relief — Immigrants' Home 379

CHAPTEE XXIV.

Ballarat — Memorial Fountain — Mechanics' Institute — Industrial
School for Girls — Hospital — Black Hill — Gold Mines —
Orphanage — Boarding-out — University — Primary Education —
Approaching Departure from Melbourne — Intermediate Prison

— Gratuities — Prisoners' Aid Society — Board of Honorary
Visitors — Statistics — Eeformatory and Industrial Schools —
Prisoners — Summary of Crime in Victoria 390

CHAPTEE XXV.

TASMANIA.

Van Diemen's Land — Convicts — Change of Name — Bass's Strait —
Intense Cold — St. George's Heads — The Tamar — Launceeton —
Invalid Depot — Out-door Relief — Benevolent Society — Falls of
the South Esk — Cheap Coaches — The Mail — Journey by Night

— Bridgewater — The Derwent — Hobarton — Mount Wellington

— Government House — The Queen's Domain — Botanic Gardens

— Museum — Governor Davey's Proclamation — The last Abori-
ginal — Transportation — The " Cascades " — Female Prison —
Asylum for the Destitute — Reformatory for Boys — Fern-tree
Bower — Mount Nelson — Flowers — Fruits — Return to Ade-
laide— Higher Education 407

xii CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Great Heat at Adelaide — Weather — Australian Climate — Luminous
Atmosphere — Bush-fire — Christmas Gathering — Torrens Gorge
— Waterfall Gully — First P. and 0. Boat at Glenelg — Celebration
of the event — Our departure — West Australia — Albany —
Schools — Aborigines — Repression of drunkenness — Final de-
parture from Australia — Bombay — Italy — Home again Page 428

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTBALIA.

CHAPTEE I.

INTRODUCTORY.

Our "Apology" for the Journey — Paris — Frederic Ausruste Demetz
— Cemetery at Cannes — Florence — Italian freedom — The Madiai —
Venice — Ladies at sea — P. and O. boats — Anemia — Brindisi — Con-
vict gaol — Hough weather — Alexandria — Kamleh — A Mohammedan
interior — Donkey-ride in the desert — Suez — The Canal — Burmese
Embassy — Aden — Divers — Galle Harbour — Natives — Boats — Mer-
chants — Washermen — Scenery — Sunday muster — Crew — Fire
Brigade — Monotony of sea-life — Amusements — Star-gazing —
Wonders of the deep — Snakes on board — Trade winds — Pitching
and rolling — Our first Australian experience — Land sighted —
King George's Sound.

AN expedition to Australia is a very different undertaking
in the present day from what it was comparatively only a
few years ago, before the Peninsular and Oriental Steam
Navigation Company had extended their traffic farther
than the shores of India, and when no means existed for
the regular conveyance of the mails to our antipodean
colonies, letters being dispatched thither at irregular in-
tervals in sailing vessels. In those days the transit
to the nearest point in Australia required at least from
three to four months, sometimes a much longer period, for
its accomplishment. Large and expensive outfits were
indispensable for the voyage, including cabin furniture and
some amount of food. At the present day, should the
traveller choose the mail steamer for his mode of convey-

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

ance, he will reach his destination in less than half the
time formerly consumed, and at no greater expense. Every
requisite is provided by the Company, including comforts
undreamt of by the pioneers of Australian travel.

Indeed, so much have the facilities for the voyage in-
creased, that persons whose business requires their pre-
sence either at home or in the colonies, now think no
more of going backwards and forwards between England
and Australia than tourists did fifty years ago of visiting
Borne or Naples.

Nevertheless this expedition, when undertaken by ladies
travelling alone, is still considered extraordinary; espe-
cially when the programme, as ours did at first, includes
Japan, and a possible return through America. We learned
this from the manner in which the news of our intended
journey was received by many of our acquaintances, who,
if they did not set us down as absolutely crazy, yet thought
we must at least be eccentric. Happily, their opinion was
modified when it was distinctly understood that we were
going to visit relatives for many years settled in South
Australia. Our French friends, whom we met at Paris
on our way, were naturally even more amazed than any
at home had been on learning the intention of two ladies,
unmarried and unattended, to make the tour of the world,
and their national courtesy was sorely tried to excuse a
proceeding so opposed to their sense of propriety. Con-
sternation depicted itself on the face of one, an old gentle-
man, who, in evident concern that he could not express
approval, took refuge in silence. We mentioned incident-
ally that we intended to visit an aunt. His countenance
brightened at once; obviously his mind was relieved
of a great weight. With a benignant smile he said,
" Mesdemoiselles, je me rejouis en apprenant le but de votre
voyage. A present j"y reconnais du COUHAGE ; autrement
cela aurait ete de Z'AUDACE." Our expedition, therefore,
was no longer audacious or eccentric ; it had become
heroic. Yet, apart from the deep interest excited by the
different countries we passed on our route, the voyage
itself, which has always appeared to our friends the most

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

difficult part of our enterprise, proved to be almost prosaic.
We encountered no gales of any severity, have to
record no alarming adventures, and returned to Eng-
land, after sixteen months' absence, convinced by ex-
perience that to persons of average health and strength
the difficulties of such a journey exist only in the imagi-
nation. It may, we feel sure, be accomplished with ease
and comfort by ladies unprovided with servants or escort.
We constantly met with kindness and attention ; every-
body was ready to afford us assistance and information ;
and we regard the inhabitants of our Australian colonies
as among the most good-natured and helpful people it has
been our good fortune to meet.

We travelled advisedly without servants. Though
strongly recommended by many of our friends to take
at least a maid, the anticipation of the inconvenience and
discomfort she would have to encounter in so extended an
expedition, added to the urgent counsel we had received
from travellers accustomed to long voyages, not to em-
barrass ourselves with a female servant on ship-board,
decided us to dispense with such an attendant. We never
regretted our decision. The stewardesses were kind and
efficient substitutes, and experience convinced us that the
responsibility of having a maid to care for under the cir-
cumstances of our journey would have far outweighed to
us the convenience of her services. With regard to dress,
we would remark that an extensive outfit is quite un-
necessary. Shops are now so good in the principal capi-
tals of Australia that any article wanted may be purchased
at a cost not much exceeding that at home. As the
fashions are sent out by the mail, those most devoted to
the toilet need not be more than a couple of months be-
hind Paris in adopting the newest modes.

A dark, cold January morning in 1873 ; breakfast by
lamplight ; and a drive through the only half-awake streets
to Charing Cross, where the party of friends who have accom-
panied us is augmented by another group waiting to wish us
bon voyage. A stern policeman forbids their presence on

B 2

4 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

the platform ; we hastily bid them adieu, and hurry on to
secure places ; bat meanwhile tearful eyes, and a pathetic
appeal in the form of an assurance, that " the ladies are
going to Australia, and may not return for many years,"
melts the manly vice the official heart ; they follow in a
rush, hands are again shaken, forgotten commissions and
farewell messages are shouted, but never heard, as the
train moves on ; and our last glimpse of home is the tiny
nephew waving his still tinier handkerchief, as his little
footsteps are quickly outstripped by our increasing speed.

A greeting awaited us at our hotel in Paris from a
dear and venerable friend, the Founder of Mottray. Our
two days' stay, brightened by his society, have become a
precious memory. Though seventy-five years old, he ap-
peared to us to have taken a fresh lease of life, so active
and vigorous he seemed ; and when at parting he engaged
us to write to him from Australia of the progress reforma-
tory principles had made there, and to visit him on our
return at his beloved Colonie, which he said should give
us our first welcome home, we would not admit a doubt
that, in spite of his advanced age and many cares, we
should meet again. Alas ! long before we came back that
wondrous brain had ceased from its labours ; that noble
heart was still. Frederic Auguste Demetz had passed to
his rest !

Having been admonished to avoid risk of stoppage in
the early part of our journey, the re-appearance of snow
at Paris raised visions of blocked-up railways, and of the
P. and O. boat, with our cabin selected and reserved four
months before, starting from Venice without us; so we
packed and departed without a moment's delay. A rapid
journey brought us into summer weather at Cannes, and
there we sojourned a few happy days among friends. One
of our rambles was to the cemetery, which has been much
improved of late years, being now well kept, and gay with
flowers. Even at the beginning of February roses —
China, Bengal, and Gloire de Dijon — blossomed in pro-
fusion. Lord Brougham lies in the centre of the portion
allotted to Protestants, a sunny hill-side, commanding a

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

glorious vie\v. A lofty and massive cross, perfectly
simple in design, of the stone of the neighbourhood,
marks his resting-place. It is inscribed —

HENKICVS BEOVGHAM.

NATVS MDCCLXXVIII.

DECESSIT MDCCCLXVIII.

Prosper Merimee is interred in this cemetery, and
others known to fame. Near to Lord Brougham's grave
is the white marble tomb of Alexander Munro, the
sculptor. Almost all who have found their last resting-
place here are foreigners, or from the far north of
France ; and there are but few whom death has not
overtaken early.

We made another halt at Florence, and were greatly
struck with its changed aspect since we knew it, in the
days of the Austrian Archduke. Liberty, prosperity, and
progress, indeed, are everywhere apparent in Italy. Being
at Milan under the former regime, and questioning the
landlord of our hotel concerning the state of his country,
he answered significantly by crossing his hands, as if
manacled, and then pressing one upon his mouth in the
manner of a gag. Now every bond is cast off, and speech
is free to all.

Renewing a friendship made twenty years before with
the able and courageous young advocate who defended
the Madiai-^a husband and wife of humble position, who
were prosecuted, persecuted one might justly say, by the
Government for worshipping, with a little band of friends,
in the privacy of their own home according to the forms
of the Protestant faith, to which they had been converted
— and wishing to express her sympathy with him in the

great advance his country had made, F remarked that

there was now as much liberty in Italy as in England her-
self. " Even more, I think," Cavaliere Maggiorani an-
swered, to our amazement. " Our elections are perfectly
free. Here bribery and intimidation of political voters
are unknown." We learnt with some chagrin, on this
and other occasions, with what surprise and contempt

6 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

Italians regard the corruptions still practised in England
in behalf of Parliamentary candidates.

On Friday, February 14th, we went on board the good
ship ' Pera, ' at Venice, and soon won the approval of our
captain, and the envy of many a suffering fellow-pas-
senger, by our regular attendance at breakfast, tiffin,
dinner, and tea.

It is often said that our sex is hardly dealt with in the
present day ; our shortcomings receiving a large propor-
tion of blame, while our virtues obtain but a scant amount
of praise. Whether or not this be true on land, it cer-
tainly does not hold good at sea. There women are
praised, while men are blamed for attributes which may
be called involuntary in both sexes.

We observed that the gentlemen on board (unless they
were seriously ill), when suffering from sea-sickness, were
considered by all true " salts " as weak-minded indi-
viduals— fair objects for good-natured jokes, not how-
ever untinctured with reproach ; whereas if they were
happily free from that wretched infliction — well, they were
only fulfilling their commonest and most obvious duty.
But when the ladies were sea-sick, they at once became
objects of the deepest compassion ; and if they escaped
this too common malady, they were treated as heroines,
considered patterns of excellence, and commanded uni-
versal respect. We travelled to Australia and back again
on this pinnacle of esteem.

Let us here pause a moment to express our gratitude
for the courtesy we received from the officers and ser-
vants of the P. and 0. Company, and the comforts we
enjoyed in their well-found vessels. Complaints were
sometimes heard of shortcomings; but on the whole our
surprise was not that some luxuries were wanting, but
that so many could be provided. Vegetables and fruit,
taken on board at one port and kept fresh in the ice-room,
never failed to last, in the best-managed ships, till we
reached the next. Our bill of fare included daily a variety
of flesh and fowl, and the delicate pastry and other sweet
dishes would have done honour to a London confectioner.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

Had we the opportunity of whispering in the ear of so
august a personage as the chief steward, we would sug-
gest that tea and coffee never can be good if dealt with
wholesale, and that the raw material, however excellent,
requires, like many other things, individual treatment to
develop its most precious qualities. A little army of tea
and coffee pots, each to be used as a factory, and not
merely as a channel for conveying the liquid from huge
cauldrons to the consumer's cup, would, we are sure, win
lasting gratitude from passengers the most robust — how
much more, then, from the miserable being who, after
days and nights of prostrating sickness, revives sufficiently
to long for tea or coffee, and receives a black and sometimes
even nauseous draught, bearing little resemblance in taste
or smell to the refreshing beverage of his yearnings. How
gratefully we recall, among many acts of kindness, the
morning tea sent to us from his own pot by one of the
higher authorities on board, with whom it was our good
fortune to travel.

There are, of course, discomforts far more serious and
irremediable than bad tea and coffee to be put up with in
ship life. Indeed one of our captains, in his consideration
for " the sex," laid it down as an axiom that " no woman
ought ever to go to sea," and that each and all who violated
this rule should be in a position to ''• justify " the action.
They should, at any rate, be able and resolved to bear the
annoyances it entails with patience, and, if possible, with
cheerfulness.

Having slept comfortably, and in blissful ignorance of a
stiff breeze, during our first night at sea, we were unconscious
of our arri val at Ancona until, on going on deckuext morning,
we found ourselves lying in the harbour. It is a handsome
town, climbing the sides of a semi-circular hill, and would
have made a pretty picture in the morniug sunshine, with
snow-capped mountains rising behind and the bright blue
sky overhead. Here we took on board an Italian crew,
for another of the Company's boats lying at Alexandria,
but who were expected to work on their way thither.
Evidently, from dress and bearing, several of them were

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

new to the sea. Before many hours had passed, their
sufferings from the unaccustomed element put to flight all
thought of duty or profit in fulfilling their engagement,
and — we being then many miles from the coast — they
demanded instantly to be set on land, declaring death
would be the only alternative. The hard-hearted British
officer, to whom, as he sat magisterially upon a hen-coop,
we saw the gesticulating group appealing for deliverance,
calmly replied that they might die if they liked, but to
go on shore was impossible.

We were in Brindisi harbour early on February 16th.
It was Sunday morning, but being in port means harder
work than usual for the crew (who have to load and unload
cargo, even if there be no coaling to be done), and noise,
bustle, and general discomfort for the passengers. It is
much to be regretted that harbour-days and Sundays are
frequently identical with P. and 0. boats, owing, we bel.eve,
to Post-office requirements. lSTor is the evil limited to
persons actually concerned with the ship. The arrival or
departure of the mail on Sundays necessitates the attend-
ance of men of business at their offices on the day of rest,
a state of things which we heard much complained of by
our countrymen at Alexandria.

The captain decided against service on board in the
midst of so much turmoil, and as the Koman remains of
the city were not sufficiently attractive to induce us to
seek them among filthy streets, crowded this festive day
with a hardly less dirty-looking population, we preferred
visiting the large convict-gaol for 800 men, about half a
mile from the quay. We were unprovided with any order
of admission, but on explaining our wish, the sentry at the
gate at once allowed us to enter, and a warder, with equal
readiness, constituted himself our guide over the building.
It was erected for a fortress by Frederic Barbarossa, and
apparently must have been one of vast strength. During
the occupation of Southern Italy by the Spaniards, they
sculptured their arms above the portal, which still remain.
To eyes acquainted with the construction of our own gaols,
this one has little but strength to render it suitable for its

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA. 9

present use, and it boasts none of the neatness and cleanli-
ness which pervade such establishments at home ; but our
guide spoke of some of the arrangements as provisional.
Probably the Department, under whose enlightened ad-
ministration, directed by Signer Beltrani-Scaglia, prison
discipline in Italy is making exemplary progress, contem-
plates such alterations as will bring the edifice up to the
requirements of the day. In some respects the system pur-
sued in it is already in advance of those prevailing in many
other countries. Sentences are for long periods ; but deten-
tion may be shortened by good conduct. To wear irons forms,
indeed, sometimes a portion of the punishment; but these are
lightened or removed, or on the other hand made heavier,
according to the behaviour of the prisoner. There is a " trust-
worthy class," who work beyond the walls, under the charge
of a warder, and go occasionally to a distance with waggon
and oxen to fetch and carry for the prison. They cultivate
land in its immediate neighbourhood, and perform other
kinds of labour. They made, we understand, the break-
water, built the large hotel on the quay, and worked on
the railroad when it was under construction. Of course
they make their own clothes, and they manufacture also a
variety of objects in mother-of-pearl and coral, which are
sold to visitors, the maker receiving half the profits.
Whether they have other means of earning money we did
not learn ; but sometimes on departure — probably after a
long period of detention — they possess '20u francs. Being
Sunday, these little articles were all locked up, and for
the same reason the men were not at work.

Our guide led us up many long flights of stairs on to
the roof, whence we beheld an uninteresting country oil
one side, and the intensely blue sea on the other. Over a
low wall, rising in the centre of the roof, we looked into
a vast square court at a great depth beneath us, in which
the prisoners were taking exercise. A large number, our
guide said, were brigands.

The men whose term of imprisonment was for twenty -five
years, or less, wore red caps ; the rest, under sentence for
life, were distinguished by green. There seemed to be

10 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

no separation of these classes in the court, nor, apparently,
was talking prohibited. A faint murmur of voices reached
our ears ; but when the men upon whom we were gazing
became aware of our presence, and face after face turned
up to gaze back upon us, we could not distinguish the
features, so great was the distance between us.

Capital punishment still prevails in the greater part of
Italy. More than forty years ago it was done away with
in Tuscany ; but though twice a Bill for its total abolition
has passed the Italian House of Assembly, the Senate has
each time thrown it out — the strongest opposition to the
measure coming, strange to say, from the Piedmontese.
But the punishment is rare now compared with former
times. The warder showed us two large rooms, opening
on to the roof, which he said were often full " under the
Bourbons " of prisoners sentenced to death, sometimes ten
or twelve being executed at once.

From our airy summit we could see some of the con-
victs who were cutting vegetables in the prison garden,
outside the walls ; and after quitting the gaol, we passed
close by one who nodded to us in a most friendly style
over the low hedge separating the garden from the road.
He was a frank, handsome-looking lad, with brilliant eyes
and smile.

The cold, which had been severe before we embarked at
Venice, increased on our voyage down the Adriatic, and
became even bitter as we crossed the Mediterranean. We
expressed ourselves as decidedly ill-used, having counted
upon a heightening temperature as we proceeded south-
wards. Those of our companions who had made the
voyage to India, laughingly assured us we should by-and-
by have it warm enough, — as we certainly had. It was,
however, only in the tropics that we absolutely suffered
from heat. On our voyage out, the atmosphere of the
dreaded Red Sea was balminess itself. On our return,
though a month later in the spring, we found it, a day or
two after passing Bab-el-Mandeb, absolutely chilly, and in
Egypt the weather was painfully cold. But it was an
unusual season. As we neared Suez we saw the snow

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 11

lying low upon the hills — a phenomenon, we were
assured, rare within the experience of even " the oldest
inhabitant." A considerable degree of cold, however,
is not very unusual there, though seldom prepared for
by any who have not already undergone it ; and we
heard sad accounts of the discomfort, and even serious
suffering, endured by travellers ascending the Red Sea,
who had packed away in unattainable places their warm
clothes and wraps.

We were not destined to cross the Mediterranean in
halcyon weather. The day after we started from Brindisi
the wind was sufficient to make our good steamer roll.
We were so fortunate as to return in the ' Pera,' from
Adelaide to Bombay, and are well acquainted with her
good qualities ; yet no ship is perfect, and her special weak-
ness is that of rolling. A short lull, as long as we were
under the protection of the Candian shores, afforded some
relief to the sufferers on board ; but rolling began again
in earnest as we made our way across to Alexandria,
bringing a wave every now and then on to the quarter-
deck, and consigning many persons to their berths. Still
we met with no really bad weather. Indeed, to sailors the

amount of wind was a trifle as R discovered one

evening when she was, by a sudden lurch, sent, right across
the stern end of the saloon, and brought to her bearings
among a group of plate baskets. Recovering herself she
remarked to a steward that it was a rough night. " Oh
dear no ma'am, no such thing, there's only a fresh breeze."
"What do you call rough?" she asked. "We call it
rough," replied the man, " when nothing will stay on the
table."

This habit of ignoring bad weather at sea is almost uni-
versal, and no doubt adopted with the most amiable desire
of affording comfort to timorous passengers. A friend of
ours, crossing the Mediterranean in weather which obliged
the ports to be closed, and when loud bangs overhead and
loose articles rolling backwards and forwards proclaimed
the disturbance of the sea, falteringly asked a compas-
sionate steward if it were not very rough. " Rough ? No

12 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

ma'am," he unblushingly exclaimed, " why there's not a
breath of air stirring!"

In our own case there was enough " sea on " to cause
our captain some surprise, " because," as he remarked,
"the barometer was high and did not account for this
disturbance." The Mediterranean was clearly behaving in
a very improper manner. Indeed, rumours were preva-
lent that when we reached Alexandria the sea would be
too high to allow us to pass the rocky bar which lies across
the entrance to the harbour, and that we should be com-
pelled to remain outside (no uncommon fate at certain
seasons) until the weather moderated. But on reaching
the bar, on the morning of the 20th February, we crossed
it without difficulty, and soon lay at anchor among the
shipping of that busy port. Our ship was speedily sur-
rounded by boats, rowed by swarthy Arabs in white or
brown robes and with bare legs.

We hastened to prepare for landing, feeling a little
nervous at the prospect, as it is proverbial that the Arab
porters are not only exceedingly troublesome, because
they rush in large numbers, and every one seizing a sepa-
rate package, bears each off in a different direction, but
that straps, unless fixed very securely to trunks, find
such favour in their eyes that they cannot resist the
temptation of stealing them. Before, however, we were

ready, our cousin S , whose guests we were to be in

Egypt, arrived, bringing with him an eastern official
dressed not unlike a French zouave, with a scimitar of
portentous dimensions, reminding us forcibly of the con-
ventional Bluebeard. He was the British Consul's janis-
sary, and so important a functionary that, after taking us
completely under his charge and landing us on the quay,
he triumphantly conducted us through the vociferating
crowds of Arabs and donkey-boys. He was no less success-
ful in our passage through the custom-house and passport
office, and quickly placed us in a carriage bound for the
Hamleh Railway station, — Rarnleh being a suburb much
frequented by the English residents in Alexandria. We
drove through shabby streets, a foot deep in mud, occa-

WHA T WE SA W IN A USTEALIA. 1 3

sionally bumping into holes which seemed large enough
to upset our carriage. There are handsome streets in
this city, but shabbiness and dirt seemed to us its chief
characteristics, nor did the large oblong Place called
Frank Square, with its covered statue of Mehemet Ali,
appear much cleaner or handsomer than other parts of the
town.

Notwithstanding the perils of mud and holes, we safely
reached the station, and on the train's departure found our-
selves in a very shabby old carriage, which had formerly
belonged to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Com-
pany, as the initials still visible in its trimmings plainly
showed. We passed one or two huge palaces belonging to
the Viceroy, of which he possesses an enormous number,
and soon entered upon the great desert on whose edge
Eamleh is situated. Our first sight of the desert completely
put to flight all our previous conventional notions on the
subject. Popular belief makes it flat. On the contrary,
it is undulating — here an elevation, there a depression,
and often in the hollows we saw barley coming up, making
green patches in the sand which was also diversified with
very pretty wild-flowers, some quite brilliant a little later
in the spring, as we saw on our return from Australia,
thirteen months afterwards.

We spent several pleasant days at Eamleh in the de-
licious air of the desert. They were diversified by visits
to the lions of Alexandria, too well known to need descrip-
tion here. We were always attended by our cousin's Arab
servant Mahomet, with whom, however, we could only
communicate in Italian, the lingua franca of the Levant.
On one occasion we asked him if we might visit his family.
Highly gratified at our request, he led us into a very
narro\v dirty street, where his house, uninviting enough on
the ground floor, yet contained comfortable rooms above,
through which Mahomet conducted us with much pride,
taking special care to point out, among other furniture, a
sponge-bath in one of the bedrooms. Leaving us seated —
not, however, in eastern fashion — on the divan, under the
windows of the sitting room, he went to prepare us some

14 WE A T WE SA W IN A US TE ALIA.

coffee, while his wife was making her toilet for our recep-
tion. Wife we say advisedly, for we had understood that
he possessed two of these appendages, and we were much
disappointed when he informed us that though this had
been the case, one of his wives had been afflicted with so
bad a temper and had caused so much disturbance in his
household that he had been compelled to send her back to
her family. At the same time showing us her portrait,
which strongly resembled the figures one sees depicted
outside tea-boxes, he asked us if we did not think her hand-
some, and looked at her likeness so tenderly we could not
help suspecting that he still retained a sneaking fondness
for his discarded help-mate. While we waited for the wife,
Mahomet brought us a little baby, his sister's child, of three
weeks old, to look at. The poor little creature was fixed
to a stick and its body swathed. Indeed, one might have
supposed its very eyes were tied to their places so perfectly
still they were, — large beautiful eyes, with very blue whites,
which never moved the thousandth part of an inch, nor
did the lids wink in the slightest degree. The infant wore
a cap adorned with silver coins, and strings of similar coins
were round its tiny wrists. Baby and clothes might have
been cleaner with advantage.

After a long interval, occupied, \ve suppose, in dressing,
our hostess appeared. She wore a bright-patterned gown
of simple fashion, confined at the waist by a handsome
girdle. On her head there was a queer sort of toque com-
posed of green velvet, tinsel, beads, and decidedly battered
artificial flowers. A chain of gold coins hung round her neck
— one very large one being suspended by itself — her for-
tune, we understood. The tops of her nails were stained red
with henna, and the edges of her eyelids were blackened with
kohl. She appeared to be about eighteen years of age
and looked healthy and happy — a little shy perhaps, but
courteous ; she shook hands with us after first kissing her
own, the usual Egyptian salutation. She only spoke
Arabic, and we could not have much communication with
her in words, making up as well as we might by nods and
smiles and repeated shaking of hands. Before we took our

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 15

departure Mahomet brought us coffee thick as treacle,
without milk, but not unpalatable, in three little china
cups, one for each of us, and one for his wife.

A glimpse of Cairo, an ascent of the great pyramid, and
a visit to Memphis are now events too common for us to
venture on their description.

Early one fine spring morning we left Ramleh for Suez,
there to embark on our long voyage. We intended to go
to Alexandria by the first train. For once Mahomet
was mistaken, and when, under his direction, we reached
the station, the train was gone ! No other would convey
us to Alexandria in time for the only daily one running
from that city to Suez, and our ship* was expected to sail
the next morning. What was to be done ? Carriages there
were none in Kamleh. Some one suggested donkeys.
Could a sufficient number be found to convey us and our
luggage? Six were speedily collected. But were two
side-saddles to be had ? Yes, two were brought. We
were soon mounted, ourselves and Mahomet, each on a
donkey; our luggage on the remaining three, and thus we

started. E had hardly proceeded twenty yards when

her saddle turned round, and she was precipitated to the
ground. Picking herself up and finding she was unhurt,
she rejoiced that it was on the sand of the desert, and not
into the filthy mud of Alexandria she had tumbled. On
examining her saddle she was not suprised at the accident,
for it was only fastened round the oudside with one old

girth. F was too far ahead to be aware of what had

happened — the train must be saved — there was nothing
for it but to remount her steed as quickly as possible, and
follow. Fortunately the saddle did not turn round again,
and after a scamper, which could not be called unpleasant
in the early morning, and invigorating air of the desert, we
reached the outskirts of Alexandria and there secured a
carriage which conveyed us to the station in good time for
the train to Suez. We certainly paid highly for that ride
and drive, but our success compensated for its cost.

When, after ten hours' travelling, during which time
we only accomplished a distance of 140 miles, we reached

16 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

Suez, it was already dark. We had desired the landlord
of the hotel to send a dragoman to meet us, as we did not
feel equal to cope successfully with the vagaries of the
Arab porters. But on arriving at the station, there was
not sufficient light to distinguish if he were there; and
we were looking with dismay on the shoals of Arabs who
boarded the train, when we heard a friendly voice in-
quiring for us by name. The voice belonged to one of
the officers of the P. and 0. Company, who had been
commissioned by their agent at Suez to escort us to the
hotel. All was now easy, and we soon reached our des-
tination after a walk through the narrow streets bordered by
minute shops ; but before quitting the station we witnessed
the unpleasant spectacle of an official summarily dismissing
the superfluous Arabs by laying about him vigorously
with a rope's end. Service was being performed in the
mosques, and in passing the open door of one, we could see
the worshippers inside bending their bodies backwards and
forwards, keeping time as it were to the prayers they were
reciting in a loud and monotonous voice.

We found the temperature higher at Suez than it had
been either at Cairo or Alexandria ; still a fire in the large
sitting-room in the evening was not unpleasant. The
next day, however, the sun was too powerful to allow of
walking or standing without shelter.

When we announced our intended tour, it was generally
assumed we should go out through the Canal ; and since
our return few inquirers concerning our journey, have
not remarked, "of course you came home through the
Suez Canal." We did neither. As we steamed by, how-
ever, to embark on the * Malwa,' which was to take us to
Point de Galle, and lay at the Company's docks a few
miles below Suez (where a bust of Lieutenant Waghorn
reminds the Overland traveller of his debt of gratitude
to that enterpising and self-devoted pioneer), the en-
trance to the Canal was pointed out to us. That we
might obtain some nearer acquaintance with this marvel-
lous work, we got a boat at Suez, on our return, and sailed
a few miles up it, passing a huge steamer and some lesser

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 17

craft on the way. Persons like ourselves, ignorant of
engineering, are, of course, unable to appreciate the
peculiar difficulties overcome in constructing the Canal,
and its aspect to the uninstructed eye is emphatically
commonplace. Low, sloping banks, in some places faced
with irregular blocks of stone, but for the most part con-
sisting of sand, and — when the wide entrance was fairly
past — a narrow strip of water, were all we saw. The mind
had to dwell upon the fact that these represent an achieve-
ment which the world had for ages pronounced impos-
sible ; to reflect upon the expanse of desert-sand, wander-
ing as the wind, soft and unstable as snow, made captive
and converted into solid embankments ; and to calculate
the vast distance, involving the circumnavigation of Africa
which the canal enables us to escape, in order to compre-
hend in any adequate degree the grandeur of this monu-
ment to the genius and perseverance of France.

Among our fellow passengers to Galle were the Burmese
Embassy returning from their visit to Europe. The party
consist eel of eighteen or twenty persons, but only one besides
the ambassador himself and his secretary (except the
two English gentlemen in their suite) dined" at the saloon
table. Some of the young men in the party were near
relatives of the ambassador, but it was not etiquette, we
were told, for them to eat in his presence. Orientals, of
course they were all devoted to smoking, which (we thank-
fully record) is not permitted on the quarter-deck of P.
and 0. boats. We were much amused one day when the
ambassador having in ignorance, no doubt, transgressed
the rule, quartermaster, as in duty bound, informed him
of the regulation. The great Eastern, in his quaint but
gorgeous costume, blandly smiled, and placidly puffed on.
Quartermaster expostulated again and again. Evidently
not a word he said was understood. At length, in despair
of accomplishing his duty, we heard him indignantly ex-
plain to a superior officer, that " that Frenchman would
smoke on the quarter-deck."

We reached Aden in a fine sunset on the fifth day after
leaving Suez. Within half an hour all was darkness ; the

O

1 8 WE A T WE SAW IN A USTEALIA.

town, in complete obscurity, being only indicated by the
lamps twinkling along the base of the vast basaltic rocks
which rise behind it. Soon, however, the moon rose, and
very picturesque the shipping in the harbour looked under
her light, and the dusky masses of rock lying about its
entrance, although the din and dirt of coaling painfully
distracted one's attention. We thought it too late to land,
and we steamed away by five o'clock next morning. On
the return voyage we again arrived in a splendid sunset,
lighting with a flame-coloured glow the rocky islets scat-
tered for many miles along the coast; but we did not
depart quite so early. We had time for a row to land in
the fresh morning air, to post our letters, and to tread
upon Arabian soil ; while the increasing glory in the east
prepared us for the lovely sunrise, which, flooding the sea
with light, made the waves sparkle as our boat in return-
ing cleft her way among them. As long as light had
served overnight, and before we again left the harbour, our
ship was surrounded by native boats crowded with little
urchins clamouring for money to be thrown into the water,
that they might dive for it. In pursuit of a shilling they
will go down on one side of the vessel, and, passing be-
neath, rise to the surface upon the other ; but for lesser
sums they will only perform lesser feats. The instant a
coin was dropped every boat was emptied of its occupants.
All vanished beneath the waves, but quickly reappeared,
the lucky finder of the prize holding it up in triumph and
then placing it, often with many others already won, in a
purse of nature's making — his mouth, where quite "a pot
of money " seemed to cause him no discomfort.

Some native porters came on board to bring and fetch
luggage. Their expression of countenance was singularly
gentle, but otherwise they were not well-favoured, and pre-
sented quite a grotesque appearance owing to the arrange-
ment of their hair. This was plaited in little tails all over
the head, having been previously more or less bleached,
by an application of lime. The tawny red or dull yellow
locks looked utterly incongruous with the dark skin and
black eyes.

WHAT WE SAW IN A USTRALIA. 1 9

Galle Harbour, which we reached in nine and a-half days
from Aden, has, in one respect, an unenviable character.
Ships rarely go in or out by night ; and by day, rocks on
which well-known vessels have split, or a net- work of cord-
age and masts appearing above the water, sad remains of
some notorious wreck, are sedulously pointed out by lovers
of the sensational to awe-struck passengers. We suppose
we must have had an especially courageous captain from
Galle to Australia, as he weighed anchor at 1 A.M. There
was a brilliant moon, and the channel we were to pursue
was marked with buoys, while on each buoy was perched
a Cingalese bearing a lighted torch, so probably we ran no
real risk. It was, however, with a certain feeling of relief
that we saw from our port — of course we did not sleep till
the exodus was accomplished — our pilot take his departure,
and we knew we were once more fairly out at sea.

Though the approach to Galle, with its doubtful glimpse
of Adam's Peak (for some persons assured us it was visible
and others declared it was not), and a prolonged view of the
Haycock and other lesser mountains is fine, the beauty
of the harbour had, we thought, been over-praised. The
cocoa-trees and other luxuriant vegetation fringing its
shore are, doubtless, very refreshing to eyes that weary of
the sea ; and probably its reputation for beauty was made
long before steamers robbed the mariner of the exquisite
bliss the sight of land must have bestowed when voyages
occupied many months. The coas^ is low, and the town,
whether seen from the water or on land, has few claims
to the picturesque. But very picturesque, intensely droll,
and utterly new to the experience of the traveller arriving
for the first time from England, is the sight that greets
him directly the ship is in port, when boats innumerable
surround it whose occupants instantly crowd the deck.
They represent numerous nationalities, and display, con-
sequently, a variety of costumes, including that which is
almost no costume at all, except a skin of any tint between
olive and the richest bronze. The Cingalese themselves
are especially remarkable for their chignons, which,
together with great scantiness of beard and a similarity

c 2

20 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

in dress, when the men are fully attired, makes it diffi-
cult to distinguish the sexes among the young people.
Of the chignons, some are fastened with a comb and some
without, the right to wear it belonging to the higher castes.
Imagine a shrivelled old boatman, almost bald, but having
his scanty grey locks elaborately arranged in a knot worn
almost at the nape of the neck, and fixed there with the
help of a comb in form like those lately in favour here for
keeping little girls' hair out of their eyes !

Some of these new arrivals have coral and tortoise-shell
ornaments to sell, and pearls and precious stones, or
imitations of the same. Though, as a rule, the jewellery is
mere rubbish, now and then a fortunate purchaser finds
he has got a really valuable gem for a comparatively
trifling price ; and, of course, every buyer hopes he shall
be the lucky exception. Other vendors offer embroidered
shawls, India muslins, a variety of objects in basket-work,
or models of the boats used in the harbour at which the
stranger gazes in amazement as they throng round his
vessel. In shape like a long deep trough, so narrow that
the little seats on either side at one end, for passengers,
hang over the water and yet leave scant room for knees
between, these boats would at once tip over but for an out-
rigger consisting of two long and slightly arching poles
fixed to one side at right angles, and united at the outer
ends by a cross-beam. In rough weather additional weight
is needed to preserve a balance, and a man stands upon
the beam ; a second is required in a gale — hence called
" a two-man storm." The outrigger, as might be expected,
often comes into collision with other vessels, when, if, as
usually happens, it is snapped off, the little craft turns
over, projecting its occupants into the sea. A rowing-boat
conveying passengers from our steamer to another, caused
such a mishap. Fortunately, there were only natives to be
upset, who swim like fishes, so that no great harm was
done ; but we often saw Europeans, even women, make the
passage to and from the ship in these cockleshells, and a
very uncomfortable sight it was, especially as the harbour
is infested by sharks which would soon attack a sinking

WHA T WE SA W IN A US TXALIA. 2 L

body, though a swimming one, by the commotion it makes
in the water, is tolerably safe. The native boats are
generally paddled, but some have masts, and an ingenious
arrangement for hoisting and lowering sails. Their
most remarkable characteristic, perhaps, is that not a nail
is used in their construction ; the numerous parts are sewn
together.

Besides the merchants vociferously recommending their
wares, for which they will generally take an infinitesimal
portion of the price they first ask, the passenger is beset
by eager faces and voices demanding his linen to wash.
" Very good washman," greets his ears on all sides, while
innumerable hands thrust papers into his very eyes, which
prove to be written testimonials by former customers to
the proficiency of these clamorous candidates for patron-
age. One became quite 'eloquent in his entreaties to

F . " Missis, me wash half-dozen things, bring all

back to-morrow; Jady want washing, me wash; bring
things all right ; " da capo, ad lib. We had not been aware
there would be such an opportunity, and had encumbered
ourselves with a stock of clothes sufficient for the whole
voyage, which we regretted when we found that our fel-
low-passengers who entrusted their linen to these
men, received it back next morning, fairly got up, for a
moderate charge.

Our Burmese companions quitted us at Galle for the
Burmese royal yacht awaiting them. Their national flag
— the device a peacock, embroidered in gold on a white
silk ground — was run up to our mast-head as a parting
salute. It was rumoured that the flag, though provided
by themselves, might be left as a souvenir for our captain
— and a very magnificent pocket-handkerchief it would
have made ; but, apparently, motives of economy pre-
vailed, for when the flag was hauled down it was restored
to one of the suite, who neatly folded it up and carried it
away.

During our first sojourn in Galle Harbour the heat
was very great, and the air damp and heavy. Lightning,
unaccompanied by thunder, flickered almost incessantly

22 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

during the evening, and while we were at dinner we ex-
perienced a genuine tropical shower, the first rain we had
seen since we reached Alexandria. The deck was quickly
flooded, and the water poured down the companion to the
entrance to the saloon. It was over in a few minutes ;
but far from refreshing the air, the heat was greater than
before. Nor was this mitigated by a heavy thunderstorm
in the night.

On our voyage out we did not land at Galle. In re-
turning, our kind captain took us on shore, and we much
enjoyed the regulation drive to the Cinnamon Gardens
and Wag Walla. Here we saw men at work in the paddy-
fields ankle-deep in water, and pine-apples growing in the
open air ; and walked by the side of a river rich, we were
assured, in alligators.

Sylvan groves — for to such are the excellent roads often
converted by the interlacing foliage of the tall feathery
palms ; broad-eaved timber cottages dimly seen among
the trees where creepers fling themselves from stem to
stem ; gorgeous flowers and other luxuriant tropical vege-
tation, only known to us at home in hot-houses ; and
glimpses of the bright dancing sea gleaming afar off
between the branches, filled our thoughts with Eastern
life and story. We half expected to see Paul and Vir-
ginia emerge hand in hand from some winding path, and
beheld their fit companions in the groups of graceful
bright-eyed children about the cottage doors. At least
we may have indulged for a few moments such poetic-
fancies, but these were quickly dispelled when the pretty
agile creatures followed our carriage, keeping up with the
quick pace of our horse for a mile or more, clamouring
for money, and significantly tapping their stomachs to in-
timate " the keen demands of appetite." To these, how-
ever, their beaming countenances and well-covered forms
lent no support. It was plain that thoughtless visitors to
the island had accustomed these children to beggary by
unneeded gifts. Another sign that we were in no real
Arcadia met our eyes in cocoa palms, having their own
long dead leaves lightly bound at intervals round their

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 23

trunks that their rustling might betray the presence of
climbing thieves by night !

At Galle we transferred ourselves from the ' Malwa ' to
the ' Sumatra,' then one of the prettiest boats in the Com-
pany's fleet, built, we were told, regardless of expense ;
and so well managed that everything seemed to go
on oiled wheels. Here we saw the picturesque Sunday
muster usual on board these vessels, but which had not
taken place during our voyage on the * Malwa.' The
crew included Lascars, Chinamen, Malays, Nubians, and a
few of our own countrymen who performed the superior
service on board. These were our quarter-masters, and
got up elaborate toilettes for the quarter-deck. The
Malays, men of great size and power, were always em-
ployed at the helm ; the Chinamen manned the captain's
gig, and usually they measured our speed, and could gene-
rally muster enough English to answer the ever-recurring
questions about the number of knots we were running —
which, when high, made us all triumphant and elate ;
when low, filled us with grumbling discontent or plaintive
dejection, according to our several dispositions. The
Nubians were our stokers, but even they could not bear
the heat of the engine-room long. Often, we were told,
they were brought up almost fainting on deck, to be re-
vived by having bucketsful of water thrown over them.
One compassionate lady was so moved by an account
of their sufferings that she ordered a large quantity
of lemonade to be supplied to them. The Lascars were
the most numerous among the nationalities represented.
They moved the sails, cleaned the ship, and made them-
selves generally useful. They were under the immediate
direction of their serang, a boatswain of their own race,
whose airs of authority and imperious gestures were comical
to behold. To see him in his light-blue dress and crimson
sash and turban, sounding from time to time the silver
whistle suspended from his neck, waving his hands now
gently, now frantically, and every motion obeyed by a pic-
turesque crowd of dark-skinned, flashing-eyed followers,
always gave us the idea that we were witnessing a well-

24 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

rehearsed scene at the theatre. The Lascar, we were told,
makes an excellent sailor. After a few years in the service
he usually returns home, and his accumulated wages suffice
to buy a comfortable farm. His ordinary attire on board-
ship is a dress of shabby blue cotton, the feet being bare.
At Sunday muster he appears in white calico tunic and
crimson sash — put on, however, over his dirty week-day
clothes.

The Chinamen always look neat, though not ornamental,
with their broad-brimmed hats almost concealing their
closely rolled-up pigtails ; their scrupulously blacked shoes,
and jackets and trousers of the flowing proportions familiar
to us on the willow-pattern plates. There is nothing
picturesque in the attire of the Nubians and Malays ; but
the handsome dark-blue and spotless white, which in
that clear atmosphere glistens in the sunshine like Alpine
snow, of our own countrymen — officers, stewards, and
quartermasters, are extremely effective, as the wearers
occupy their respective positions on the deck, lined far
down on either side by the ship's company.

Sometimes the fire brigade is exercised before the muster,
but always without previous warning. One perceives a
sudden stir among the men, lines are formed, a hose appears,
the pumps are at work, and within a few minutes of the
signal to assemble, the same, of course, which would give
the alarm in case of fire, copious streams of water are
pouring from the long flexible tubes — into the sea !

Service follows quickly upon the muster. It is read in
the saloon or on deck, according to the weather ; the ex-
temporised reading-desk being always covered with the
Union Jack. The national flag also forms the pall in case
of burial at sea.

Few travellers on the ocean, however good sailors they
may be, fail to weary of their voyage long before its termina-
t ion. Life on board ship " drags its slow length along," except
i'or the happy few whose heads are as clear there as on land,
and whose capacity for work remains the same where privacy
is unattainable, as in their own studies. Gambling is a com-
mon resort from ennui among the gentlemen, whether with

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 25

games of chance, or in betting upon every conceivable
uncertainty. The number of knots that will be made from
noon to noon ; the hours, minutes, and seconds occupied in
a run from port to port ; the foot the pilot will first put
on deck, &c., &c., are all subjects on which to hazard
money, and so beguile the time. Souls above gambling
still find light reading, chess, or needlework severe occu-
pation ; and smoking by the gentlemen and sleeping by
both sexes are largely indulged in, to while away the lin-
gering hours. Experience bought on our outward voyage
made us resolve to try upon our return the effect of
regular exercise, and we rarely fell short of two hours'
walking daily. The result was satisfactory ; and we can
conscientiously recommend the recipe, which should be
accompanied by regularity of hours in pursuing such
occupations as are available, and by a stern resolution
never to leave a moment unemployed. If you idle, you
are lost !

The announcement posted each day at noon, in the com-
panion, of the progress made during the past twenty-four
hours and the present latitude and longitude of the vessel,
is an event of unfailing interest in life at sea, and affords
a welcome topic for conversation.

Theatricals are a frequent refuge from the monotony of
sea-life ; they require, however, one or two energetic people
to set them going, and in none of our voyages did any pas-
sengers so distinguish themselves. But less ambitious en-
tertainments, where songs and readings alternated, made
many an evening pass pleasantly. Dancing found little
favour, except that a children's ball given by the captain
proved a great success, though when first announced a
rolling sea and the thermometer at 88° made us anticipate
it with dismay ; for we were all expected to take part in
entertaining the little ones. Fortunately the wind mode-
rated, and so did the heat by a few degrees. Yery pro-
bably that of a London ball-room is often as great ; and if
one has to dance when one's premiere jeunesse is, alas, long
past, it is well to get some credit out of it by coaching
little partners successfully through Sir Roger de Coverley.

26 WHAT WE SAW IN AUS THALIA.

Star-gazing is a resource during the long hours which
must be passed in darkness on deck by those who dislike
the heat and glare of the lighted saloon ; but it is pursued
with difficulty because of the awning, which is rarely re-
moved. We had not anticipated this impediment, and
it caused us much disappointment.

Every one who has crossed the line knows how greatly
the splendour of the Southern Cross was exaggerated by
the early navigators, who, penetrating to unknown seas,
were amazed to recognise in this new constellation the
emblem of their faith. The two neighbouring stars, some-
times called the pointers, are, however, very brilliant, and
always arrest one s gaze. It is startling when, for the first
time, one notices the young moon showing her crescent
horizontally, the outline of her orb being quite distinct, and
the whole disc slightly luminous. The white Magellanic
clouds resemble flakes of the softest most ethereal cotton.
The black cloud inspires one with awe ; through this gap
in the Milky Way (if such it be) one seems to gaze into
dark immeasurable space !

The awning, so unwelcome at night, was an absolute
necessity when " the sun poured down intolerable day."
Even to cross a little space beyond its shade umbrellas
were necessary ; in fact, it was an indispensable protection
from him who, our best friend in high latitudes, becomes
elsewhere an object of dread. Thus we seldom even saw
him ; and the sunsets, too, at sea proverbially splendid, we
rarely beheld, for when the sun was going down, so usually
were we — to dinner. During the year we were south of
the Equator we did not get used to his apparent motion
" the wrong way," and seeing him restored to his rightful
course was one of the pleasures of the homeward voyage.
Another very keen one was recognising the uppermost
stars of familiar constellations as they appeared above the
northern horizon. This, however, liad its corresponding
pain when the last star of the Southern Cross vanished
from our view, and we realised the distance dividing us
from our Australian friends.

A ship bound on a long voyage, and carrying some

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 27

hundreds of persons, constitutes a little world in itself, and
doubtless innumerable interests may be found by those who
seek them. Ladies, however, cannot penetrate into every
nook and corner, or converse with any and all on board.
Now and then in the sultry evenings one of our captains,
invited some of us to the bridge, deliciously airy by com-
parison with our usual quarters ; sometimes, duly escorted
by compassionate gentlemen, a party of us would escape
from normal heat by mounting to the breezy forecastle
(which, of course, we all pronounced "foJoe-satt") ; and on
one boat our captain took us a most interesting tour round
his ship, explaining the various parts, and drawing our
attention to the skilful economy of space displayed in its
arrangements. But such pleasant breaks in the ordinary
quarter-deck life were rare. Once or twice a rat scuttering
along, or a pig escaped from its pen and rushing frantically
into our midst, caused a little sensation ; and on one occa-
sion an event occurred which might have had serious con-
sequences. On the voyage home, besides a beautiful horse
— ' Jacko ' by name — on his way to the races at Colombo,
we had on board a case of the most venemous serpents that
could be found in Australia, consigned to Dr. Ewart, at
Calcutta, in aid of his researches in regard to snake-poison.
We passengers, as it proved, ran a risk of affording practical
illustrations of its virulence. The creatures were torpid at
first, but as they approached the Equator they grew lively,
and at length one of them, whether in the exuberance of
its spirits, or because a long course of fasting (for directions
accompanied them, when sent on board, that nothing but
water should be given them) had diminished its circum-
ference, wriggled its way between the wires of its cage and
was making off to some convenient place of ambush. For-
tunately a Lascar sailor showed himself equal to the occa-
sion. Perceiving the runaway he picked it up, applying
his finger and thumb to the back of its neck, and thrust it
back into the cage, which no doubt was then made secure.
Whether such passengers ought ever to have been taken
on board, was a question which their human fellow-tra-
vellers certainly never answered in the affirmative.

28 WE A T WE SAW IN A USTSA LI A .

Of living creatures outside our ship we saw compara-
tively few. Occasionally the pretty flying fish skimmed
along the surface of the water, looking like flocks of little
fawn-coloured birds. On the Australian coast hundreds of
sea-gulls would sometimes collect about our vessel, circling
round us and approaching near enough for us to appreciate
the exquisite colouring of their dove-like plumage and
coral-tiuted beaks and feet. Between Melbourne and
Sydney we passed through shoals of Portuguese men-of-
war, not floating, however, but a little below the surface
of the waves. They varied in hue, appearing through the
water pale orange, mauve, or green; but whether they
simply reflected these colours, cast upon them by different
parts of the ship's metal-casing, bright sea-weeds, &c., or
themselves possessed them, we could not tell.

Although for some weeks, in the course of all our
voyages, we were in the region of whales, we never saw
one, nor the large albatross, nor a single shark. To become
acquainted with the wonders of the deep one must, we
were told, travel by a sailing-vessel ; a steamer moves too
rapidly, and makes too much commotion.

A few days alter leaving Galle we became aware of a
very uncomfortable amount of motion. The trade-wind
was hard to catch, nor did it promote our ease when
caught. Our experience each way brought us to the con-
clusion that when it blew with us we rolled, and when it
blew against us we pitched. Often were our ports closed,
causing, while we were in, the tropics, great discomfort.
A heavy sea, in what was admitted by the authorities to
be " half a gale " while it was blowing, and a very re-
spectable whole one when well over, seriously aggravated
our sufferings. Public opinion, however, was on the side
of cheerfulness, and fortunately very few on board were
made really ill. The Australian waters are proverbial for
their roughness. " We have none of your little chopping
seas," remarked an enthusiastic colonist ; " our waves run
mountains high ;" and though, happily for us, pride in his
adopted country had led him into some exaggeration, we
had little smooth sailing after we hud fairly approached

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 29

the Southern Ocean. " We are exposed to its full force/'
remarked our captain on our return voyage; "always
remember thai when you come to Australia :" as if it were
a trip we contemplated frequently repeating.

There had been rough weather for several day?, which,
by delaying our progress and postponing the termination
of our voyage, had somewhat depressed our spirits. But
now was " the winter of our discontent made glorious
summer! " One morning we came on deck to find the wind
fallen, the sun brilliant, the sky cloudless, and the air
balmy. This we were assured by a fellow-passenger was
"real Australian weather," and he promised us that by-
and-by we should have "months of it." A delicious odour
pervaded the air, such as greets one on a summer's day
when thyme is in blossom, and fir-trees are not far off.
Wafted to us 180 miles across the sea, it was recognised as
the smell of a bush-fire. This, then,-was our first Australian
experience !

But real Australian weather proved now, as often after-
wards, very evanescent. The wind freshened that night,
the ports were again closed, and we were rocked to sleep or
kept awake as the case might be, by the tossing waves.
Sailors say it is almost always rough near Cape Leuwin,
which we rounded the next day. WTien land was pro-
claimed to be in sight, every one, whether colonist re-
turning home or stranger who had crossed the world to
see it, was eager to catch the first glimpse of the Australian
coast ; but as yet sailors alone could perceive it, though
we strained our eyes to the uttermost. " Where is the
land?" " There," replied the quartermaster, pointing to
the horizon ; " don't you see it ? " as if it were a sign-board,
three yards square, about ten feet distant from our eyes !
"No;" though we stared as hard as we could, honesty
compelled us to admit that we did not discern it Nor
until some hours afterwards was the coast visible to lands-
men. A barren, inhospitable shore it looked at first ; but,
as we approached we could distinguish some patches of
vegetation on the lon» line of sandy hills.

The sea remained nigh until we had nearly reached

30 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

King George's Sound. This was doubly depressing after
our short taste of " real Australian," and it cast a gloom
over the spirits of the passengers. Under these circum-
stances it was cheering to observe that the roughness
could afford pleasure to some living creatures. Several
albatrosses of the small species common in this part of
the world were flying backwards and forwards, now touch-
ing with the tips of their wings one wave and then
wheeling off to another, circling with graceful motion
in the air, evidently thoroughly enjoying both wind and
weather.

It was with a sense of exultation that, steaming up the
narrow entrance to the inner harbour of King George's
Sound, we felt we had happily accomplished so large a
portion of our voyage. In consequence of the delay in
our arrival, we expected to find the branch mail-boat, which
was to convey us to Adelaide, with steam up, ready for
starting. Indeed, the captains of these vessels were repre-
sented as being so impatient to carry off their mails, that
cargo and even passengers might be easily left behind.
The reason for this extraordinary haste, we were told, was
the natural desire of the South Australians to obtain their
English news as quickly as possible, and — softly be it
whispered — before the Victorians could get theirs. Ade-
laide is about 200 miles nearer to King George's Sound
than Melbourne ; but as the P. and 0. Company's large
steamers surpass the local boats in speed, a good start was
of importance to the latter. By the telegraph, established
between the capitals, the one which tirst received the
news triumphantly flashed it to the other.

This cause of rivalry between the two colonies is now
at an end, as under a new contract the P. and O. steamers,
on their way to and from Melbourne, call off Glenelg (a
little bathing town, about seven miles from Adelaide),
to deliver and take in the outward and homeward mails.
But this alteration had not taken place when we reached
Australia.

The thoughtful captain of the ' Sumatra,' in order to
expedite matters as much as possible, had ordered all

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 31

our luggage to be placed at one gangway, while the sacks
of letters, sixty-three in number, lay at the other, and
we stood on deck prepared for instant transit to the Ade-
laide steamer in the captain's gig, which he had kindly
placed at our disposal. But this preparation proved need-
less— the South Australian steamer had not arrived.

32 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

CHAPTER II.

Departure for Adelaide — Great Australian Biglit — Kangaroo Island —
Geographical Divisions of the Continent — English ignorance of Aus-
tralia — Foundation of South Australia — Arrival — Adelaide.

BEFORE five o'clock on the morning of April 2nd, and
consequently long before it was light, our bed-room-
steward knocked at our cabin-door, telling us the Ade-
laide boat had arrived during the night, and would start
at six precisely. There was no time to be lost, and we
dressed as quickly as possible. Several of our fellow-
passengers having heard we were departing, appeared in
various forms of deshabille to wish us farewell. On
going on deck we found the captain's gig lowered and
manned in readiness for us, and himself waiting to bid us
good bye before he " turned in," to make up while he
could for much sleep lost during our late rough weather.
Under his chief officer's courteous escort, the six China-
men rowed our one fellow-passenger for Adelaide and
ourselves in a very few minutes to the ' Rangatira,' but on
reaching her deck we saw plainly she was not on the point
of starting. She had not even finished discharging her
cargo for the Sound, and had yet to take in all we had
brought her for Adelaide.

The sun, just risen, was lighting up the bay from
point to point, his radiance stealing over the water, now
smooth as glass. The view was less picturesque, how-
ever, than on the previous afternoon, when a sharp breeze
broke the surface of the harbour into waves and drove the
shadows rapidly across the hill-sides. Then, too, the
smoke from a distant bush-fire in a gully protected from
the wind had hung — a delicate semi-transparent white
veil — among the purple raines. But the morning aspect

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 33

of the Sound was, nevertheless, very pleasing. The rocky
islets about its mouth are exceedingly fine in form — one
strongly resembling Arthur's Seat — and beyond the ranges
of hills near the coast rises, some distance inland, a really
uoble peak ; while the little township of Albany, close to
the water's edge, with its English-looking church and one
or two pretty country-houses on a slight eminence, has a
neat and well-to-do air.

Hour after hour passed and there was no sign of start-
ing, and two or three had elapsed before any appeared
even of breakfast. We watched with hungry eyes the
preparations that at length became visible ; and whether
it was our long fast, or the freshness of the provisions
which made that first Australian meal so delicious we
have never been able to decide. In the opinion of a
Londoner, who may be said to live " from shop to
mouth," the provisions might indeed have seemed any-
thing but fresh, for all except the milk had been brought
from Adelaide. The bread, though five days old, was
excellent, and continued excellent for the five remaining
days of our voyage. But this perhaps was not wonderful,
as South Australian wheat claims to be the finest in the
world : so that when South Australians come home they
sometimes have the grain from their own colony sent to
them, declaring they can eat no other bread than that
manufactured from it. Our bountiful dessert, including
almonds and raisins, grapes, pears, and apples, was entirely
of colonial growth, and, as well as the vegetables, all were
excellent. The potatoes recalled to memory the flowery
roots of our childhood, unknown in England since the
famine.

We had supposed these provisions would be taken on
board at Albany for the return voyage, but we were in-
formed that the inhabitants, far from raising such articles of
export, actually themselves import ordinary farm-produce
from the other colonies. We can bear testimony that our
departure was delayed by the unloading of a large quan-
tity of bacon. By universal consent — for the charge
seemed by no means to be repudiated by the subjects of

D

34 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

it — the inhabitants of Albany are admitted not to be
industrious, and the same reputation attaches in greater
or less degree, though with doubtless many honourable
exceptions, to the West Australians generally.

Founded in 1829 on principles of colonisation, the
unsoundness of which were soon demonstrated, and con-
stituting rather an out-station of Government police than
a self-supporting and self-governing settlement, the colony
never flourished, and in 1849 abandonment even was con-
templated. This idea, however, was relinquished for a
scheme which should furnish the place with labour in the
shape of English convicts.* The large sums which flowed
into the colony from the imperial treasury for their support,
until in 1867 we ceased " to take the scum of people and
wicked condemned men " wherewith to augment the popu-
lation of this new country, made money so abundant that
the colonists could purchase all they needed. The incen-
tive to industry had been withdrawn, and production was
paralysed.

West Australia is now awakening to a sense of the
demoralizing process she has undergone, and rousing
herself to honourable independence. She is beginning
to boast of her vast resources, and to seek means for their
development. Like each of her sisters, she says she shall
by-and-bye be the leading nation of the Southern world.
But these at present are the aspirations only of her nobler
spirits. No such patriotic ardour seems yet to have
touched Albany, as this morning's experience taught us to
our cost. After weary watching, the colonial postbag at
length came lazily on board, but still we had to wait
for the mails from England. Some one on shore had
the contract for their transhipment, and that some one
had not yet appeared. All Albany boats are moved by
sail — because their crews are too indolent to row, say sar-
castic critics — and there was no breeze. One rose at last,
signs of activity showed themselves at the spot where a

* « Colonial Policy and History,' by the Right Hoii. Sir C. B. Adderley,
M.P. London : 186U.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 35

buoy marked our trysting-place with the local mail-boat,
and gladly did we draw up alongside.

It was at twelve o'clock, instead of six, that we at last
started for Adelaide, our captain good-naturedly towing
for a mile or so the tiny yacht of Mr. Lee, E.A., which
had transported its owner across the world in pursuit of
shells, but could not convey him, for lack of a favourable
wind, to the part of the Sound he this morning wished to
dredge. The miniature craft, as we looked down upon
it from the deck of the * Rangatira,' appeared such a toy
upon the waters that one marvelled it could have braved
and surmounted for so many thousand miles the dangers of
ocean travelling ; and the ' Rangatira' herself was likened
disrespectfully to a cockleshell by the travellers just
transferred from the Peninsular and Oriental boat. She
was, however, a safe and comfortable vessel, though her
lesser size made the influence of the waves more apparent
in her motion. As we rounded Cape Vancouver and en-
tered the Great Australian Bight a strong head-wind
made our course a very rough one; and the short roll,
quick pitch, and twist round to finish with, reminded us
most unpleasantly of chopping seas at home. The east
wind, too, was bitterly cold in spite of brilliant sunshine,
and we could only escape it — to endure it long was im-
possible— by crouching bundled up in wraps on a mattress,
and keeping our heads well below the top of a sheltering
bulk-head. At first only two of our fellow-passengers ap-
peared on deck, pleasant young West Australians, one of
whom had never quitted his colony before, and to whom
gas and railways were as yet unknown.

We had already heard of the suspicion with which most
of the other colonies regard new arrivals of the male sex
from West Australia lest they should prove to be escaped
prisoners or ex-convicts. Police officers were on board the
* Rangatira ' during the whole time she lay in the Sound,
to prevent any such objectionable persons coming on board
and getting themselves conveyed as " stow-aways " to
Adelaide. The vigilance thus exercised by the authorities
of West Australia arises from the severe complaints they

D 2

36 WHAT WE SAW IN A USTRALIA.

receive from their more powerful neighbours if any of the
proscribed class reach their shores. New South Wales
is an exception ; and we were told the best hope of gain-
ing an honest livelihood for an " expiree" is to go there, and
so escape the depraved ex-convicts who hang about the
'townships of West Australia, and give their well-disposed
companions no peace from their efforts to drag them
down to their own bad level.

Besides the watchfulness of police-officers, a still more
stringent precaution is taken by the sister colonies to pre-
vent these men from landing on their territories. Every
'male, whatever his social position, embarking from a West
Australian port is compelled to provide himself with a
printed form filled in with the name of the bearer and the
date of his departure, to which he has to obtain the signa-
ture of a magistrate. Our young companions were, of
course, each duly furnished with the needful document,
and allowed us to peruse their contents, which ran as
follows : — " This is to certify that A. B. is not, and never
has been a prisoner of the Crown." Members of the fair
sex are exempt from this regulation, simply because the
Colony has never received female convicts.

From these young men, and from some West Australian
ladies when after two or three days they ventured to
emerge from their berths, and subsequently from other
compatriots, we heard much which strengthened our
intention of visiting their country on our homeward
voyage ; and it was and remains a source of much regret
that, when that occasion arrived, time did not permit
us to do more than land for an hour at Albany.
What information we meanwhile gathered concerning
this portion of Australia we may perhaps most appro-
priately relate when we describe that very short but
interesting visit.

Sunday, April 6th, was a lovely day, though during the
early part the wind was still keen enough to make warm
clothing, pleasant. We sighted Kangaroo Island about
one o'clock P.M., and by three were running almost close
under its long level line of cliff. A lighthouse, and one

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 37

or two minute farmhouses, were the only signs of man's
presence that we could discern, and not a tree was to be
seen. To the north now came in view the coast of Yorke's
Peninsula on the mainland of South Australia, so rich in
copper-ore that the yield at Moonta, the site of the chief
mining operations, even exceeds that obtained at Burra
Burra in its palmiest days.

Towards evening the cold we had experienced during
the voyage gave place to what would have been unplea-
sant warmth, but for the extreme dryness and buoyancy
of the air. This sudden difference of temperature, almost
equal to a change from winter's cold to the extreme of
summer heat, was due, as we learnt next day, to a hot
wind blowing off-shore. There was a glorious sunset and
delicious after-glow, and a smooth sea as we got under
shelter of the Mount Lofty Range on the eastern shore of
the Gulf of St. Vincent, up which we were now steaming.

At 3 A.M. of the 7th, the stoppage of our engines and
some bustle on board indicated that we had reached
Glenelg, and that the mail-bags, or rather sacks, were
going on shore. We lay there till daylight, the navi-
gation of the so-called Port Creek — really an arm of the
sea — being perilous in the dark for our vessel. When
we awoke we found ourselves already far advanced up its
tortuous channel, the * liaugatira ' winding her way among
mangrove-swamps and reed-beds. Unless the natural
approach can be improved, or a better one made, Port
Adelaide can never become a place of resort for large
ships. To cut a ship-canal thence to Glenelg, a distance
of only a few miles, as the crow flies, is under considera-
tion. A railway has already been constructed thither from
the capital, but Glenelg itself offers no safe harbourage.

The Continent first named New Holland, now called
Australia, lies south-east of Asia, between the 113th and
153rd degrees of East Longitude, and the llth and 39th
parallels of South Latitude. The distance between Shark's
Bay on the West Coast and Cape Sandy on the East is 2400
miles. Cape York, on its northern, and Cape Otway, on
its southern shore, are about 1700 miles apart.

38 WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA.

The Australian continent contains about 3,000,000
square miles, an area somewhat less than that of Europe.
It is divided into five provinces — New South Wales, Vic-
toria, South Australia, West Australia, and Queensland.

Of these, South Australia is the youngest, for though
its foundation dates from an earlier period than that either
of Queensland or Victoria, both these colonies were formed
of slices cut off — the one from the north the other from
the south — of New South Wales, the first British settle-
ment on these shores.

South Australia ran, however, as the period of her birth
approached, great risk of never coming into existence at
all. The Bill for erecting this portion of the continent
into a British province was brought into Parliament by
the late Mr. Wolryche Whitmore early in 1834, but met
with so much delay that it did not reach the Upper House
until August, at almost the end of the Session. It then
became known to those interested in the project that* the
Duke of Wellington would oppose the Bill ; that if he did
so the Duke of Cumberland would do the same, and that
Lord Wynford was also unfavourable to it. Deputations
to these noblemen were speedily arranged. Among the
gentlemen who waited on the Duke of Cumberland and
Lord Wynford were Mr. — now Sir Eichard — Hanson, the
present Chief Justice of South Australia, and the late
Mr. Matthew Davenport Hill, M.P. for Hull. The Duke
of Wellington had already consented to abandon his oppo-
sition, and, on learning this, the Duke of Cumberland
promised to do the same, complaining, however, to the
deputation that the Lower House should send a batch of
Bills at the end of the Session to the Lords, who knew
nothing about them. Lord Wynford's objection was to
constituting so large a tract of land one province; and
this he withdrew on receiving the assurance that a clause
should be inserted in the Bill empowering the Sovereign.
to form the portion in question of the Australian continent
into one or more provinces, as might hereafter seem best.

Opposition having been thus, removed, and the Bill
duly amended, Mr. Hill moved the amendments in the

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 39

House of Commons. They were carried, and the Bill,
being returned to the Lords, passed both Houses only a
few minutes before Black Rod appeared to summon the
Commons to the Bar of the House of Lords to hear
the King's Speech proroguing Parliament. Soon after
the Ministry under which the South Australian Bill had
been introduced was thrown out, and their successors
would not have been likely to favour it ; so that but for
the efforts of the gentlemen who secured its passage in
1834, it might never have become law at all.

Under this Act* the Crown created the "Board of
Colonisation Commissioners for South Australia " to carry
into effect (uncontrolled by any department of the State)
the new scheme of colonisation it embodied. They
made Mr. Rowland Hill, the future postal reformer, their
Secretary.

A " Commissioner of Public Lands," who was to reside
in the colony, was nominated also by the Crown, though
he was to act solely under the orders of the Board ; and
the appointment of a Governor was likewise vested in the
Crown.

One fundamental condition of the Act was that no
convicts should ever be consigned to South Australia ;
another that the land in the new province should be sold
publicly for ready money, at a price to be thereafter
decided upon, except that a minimum was fixed of twelve
shillings an acre. The money thus raised was to form an
" Emigration Fund," and be employed in conveying per-
sons of the labouring class — selected under strict con-
ditions, and equality in regard to sex being as nearly as
possible observed — to the colony from the United Kingdom.

The Board were required to raise 20,000?. by loan, and
to invest them in Government Securities, as a guarantee
that the colony should not become a charge upon the
mother-country ; and it was also required before emigra-
tion should begin that land should have been sold to the
value of 35,000£ Moreover, the Board were empowered

* 4th and'Stb William IV., c. 95.

40 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

to raise on loan a sum of 200,000?., chargeable upon the
rates, duties, and taxes, of the new country, to meet the
expenses incident to founding the colony, and providing
for its government.

Experience proved both that the division of the duties
of administration between authorities separated by a dis-
tance of 16,000 miles, requiring at that date many months
to traverse, led often to delay and misapprehension ; and
that the sum the Commissioners had power to raise fell
far short of the necessary expenditure of a new colony,
including the extensive surveys which were a necessary
preliminary to the further sale of land. Embarrassments of
various kinds inevitably arose, which were made the sub-
ject of a Parliamentary inquiry by a Select Committee in
1841. In their report the Committee do justice to the
difficulties the original Board of Commissioners had to
contend with, and attribute them chiefly to defects in the
Act under which the colony was created. The Report
recommended that this, and a subsequent amending Act,
should be repealed, and South Australia be placed on
the same footing with other British colonies. It also
advised a change in the price and mode of selling land,
and alterations affecting the local government of the pro-
vince. The first Board of Commissioners had prepared
regulations with conscientious care to promote the good
treatment and general welfare of the Aborigines. Among
these was included the reserve of lands for their use. This
latter provision was also recommended by the Select Com-
mittee, and to the present time tracts of land have thus
been reserved for them, although we heard it sometimes
alleged not so extensively as justice demands.

In 1840 a new Board had been created, charged with
the general direction of colonial land sales and emigra-
tion, and to this body some of the functions of the South
Australian Commissioners were transferred. In 1850 an
Act was passed authorizing the creation of a single House
of Legislature, to be partly nominated by the Crown, and
partly elective. This feody came into existence in the fol-
lowing year; and in 1856 the colony obtained its present

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 41

constitution of self-government, with a Parliament, of which
the Legislative Council forms the Upper, and the Legisla-
tive Assembly the Lower House, both being now entirely
elective.

The first settlers landed on Kangaroo Island towards the
end of the year 1836, and the foundation of the colony was
formally proclaimed on the 28th of December, called Com-
memoration Day, an anniversary always kept as a great
festival.

When the settlement was made, South Australia was
bounded on the east by the 132nd, and on the west
by the 141st degree of east longitude, and extended
northwards from the Southern Ocean to the 26th parallel
bf south latitude, including in its territory Kangaroo
Island, about 100 miles long by 50 broad, which lies at
the entrance of the Gulf of St. Vincent. Its area, then
somewhat smaller than that of France, has since been
more than doubled by two large accessions of territory.
The first, designated "No Man's Land," was a slip of
country lying between its western boundary and West
Australia. It received the second in 1863, when the
limits of South Australia were extended northwards to the
Indian Ocean between the 129th and 138th degrees of east
longitude. The country thus acquired, called the Northern
Territory, may be regarded as a sub-colony to the original
province of South Australia. It is governed by the Execu-
tive at Adelaide, and is not yet represented in the
colonial Parliament. Gold has recently been discovered
there, but no large amount has yet been found.

New South Wales is much smaller, while Western
Australia is of considerably greater extent than South
Australia. Queensland is about its equal in size, and
Victoria, though the smallest of the colonies, yet con-
tains 98,000 square miles.

Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, and Melbourne,
that of Victoria, are distant from each other, by sea 500
miles, by land 400. The overland mail occupies nearly
four days and nights of continuous travelling in passing
from one to the other.

42 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

Sydney and Brisbane on the eastern shore of the conti-
nent, the capitals of New South Wales and Queensland,
are distant by land from Adelaide, the first between TOO
and 800, the second about 1100 miles. The voyage, how-
ever, from Adelaide to Sydney is nearly 1100 miles in
length. Perth, the seat of government of West Australia,
is 1400 or 1500 miles from the metropolis of South Aus-
tralia ; while the distance between Perth, on the western,
and Sydney, on the eastern shores, is about equal to that
from Edinburgh to Constantinople.

We have been thus particular in describing the size of
the continent and its divisions into distinct colonies, some
as large as several European countries joined together,
possessing great varieties of climate, and distinct govern-
ments each as independent of the other as those of France
and England, because people at home are extremely igno-
rant of the geography and relative bearings of our anti-
podean possessions. In England the name " Australia " is
vaguely applied to the continent as a whole, to a single
colony, or to some imaginary composite settlement com-
bining the capital of one province with the rural districts
of another.

The phrase " Governor of Australia," a title which has
no existence in reality, is often used when allusion is made
to any one of the five representatives of Her Majesty.
The capitals of the different colonies are frequently
considered merely to be towns in one large country
having no metropolitan signification whatever. They
are not unseldom jumbled together with the utmost con-
fusion in the ordinary British mind. Those 500 miles apart
are spoken of as if they were as near to each other as Hamp-
stead is to London ; as if, for instance, Sydney were a suburb
of Melbourne, whereas three days and nights by land, and
from sixty to seventy hours by sea, divide them.

In fact the description given by an old lady we knew, of
the travels of a friend of hers who, she said, had been " to
Adelaide and the Sydney Isles, and skirmished round the
coast," hardly surpasses in haziness the knowledge yet pre-
vailing among us of these large and important colonies.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 43

When on a visit to England many years ago, our friend
Mr. George Burt, one of the first, if not the very first man,
to make his way through the bush from Adelaide to
Sydney, told us he was unwilling to speak here of his pur-
suits in the colony, because persons at home could not
understand the difference between a bush-maw and a bush-
ranger. It may be now even as well to explain that a
bushman is a colonist whose occupation leads him to
travel or to live in the bush — the bush signifying, when
the first settlements were made, all uncultivated land,
though now it may be taken as almost synonymous with
" the country " at home. Bushrangers were, in the
early days of Australian colonisation, always escaped con-
victs, but their numbers were subsequently sometimes
recruited by members of the unconvicted community.
They were in fact highwaymen or banditti.

Our Australian fellow-subjects make themselves ex-
tremely merry at our expense ; and take much pleasure
in relating good stories, some of them we hope, if not
actually invented, yet certainly embellished, illustrative of
English ignorance. They will tell you how they receive
letters from friends at home, addressed to them, say, at
Adelaide or Melbourne, informing them that a son,
nephew, or cousin is going out to New Zealand, and
asking their Australian correspondents to " look alter him
a bit," — New Zealand being six days' voyage by steamer
from the nearest Australian capital. Or ladies in England
write to their female friends in Adelaide to tell them that
some young couple of their acquaintance are just gone out
to settle at Melbourne. The wife will feel extremely lonely
at first in a strange country : " Will they call on her
sometimes, and cheer her up a little ? "

Some years ago, when arrangements were under dis-
cussion by a religious community at home for sending
a pastor to a congregation in Adelaide, it was suggested
by one of the speakers that the stipend originally fixed
upon should be raised, in order to enable the minister to
keep a horse, as after preaching at Adelaide in the morning,
if he should desire to deliver a discourse at Melbourne

44 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

the same afternoon, he would find the distance " beyond a
walk."

We heard of letters from England addressed to a
firm at " Adelaide, New South Wales." We were our-
selves shown one, most happily illustrating how utterly
unconscious we are of the individual existence of Aus-
tralian Colonies. Being intended to find the country seat
of one of the oldest families settled in New South Wales,
it was directed to

Camden Part,
Queensland,

South Australia.

" Try New South Wales," written across the letter, had
eventually brought it to its destination.

But perhaps the story which illustrates most completely
our ignorance both of the geography, and of the relation of
our Australian settlements to the mother country, we heard
at Melbourne, from a member of the Cabinet. A letter
was received from a high-class solicitors' firm at home,
enclosing a Power of Attorney, with instructions that it
should be attested in the presence of a British Consul,
and returned to them. The recipient, amused at the
blunder, but concluding that it was a slip of the pen of
some young clerk, had the document duly attested be-
fore a magistrate, and sent it back to London. By the
return mail came an indignant letter, complaining that
all the time and money expended in the double transmis-
sion had been thrown away, and that as the Power of
Attorney had not been attested in the presence of a British
Consul it was informal, and consequently useless ! It is
difficult to conceive a person in the position of a solicitor
being ignorant that the Australian colonies form an
integral part of the British Empire, whereas Consuls can
only exercise their functions in foreign countries.

While writing, the South Australian papers bring a fresh
illustration of the ignorance existing, even in our Govern-
ment departments, of the political divisions of Australia.
The American Government, it appears, applied to ours to

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 45

permit telegrams relating to the transit of Venus to be
forwarded gratuitously by the Trans-continental Australian
telegraph, which belongs entirely to South Australia. The
application was referred to the Colonial Office, and that
department undertaking to convey it to the Government
of the Colony concerned, communicated it to Melbourne,
where the authorities, of course, had no option in the
matter. It is needless to add that South Australia gladly
acceded to the request of the American Government,
when at length it reached her.

Proceeding up the Port Creek, we saw low land on either
side of us, but the Mount Lofty Kange, or Adelaide Hills,
as it is also called — rising a few miles inland, formed
a pretty back-ground to the view. Many of the heights
are richly wooded, and such is the clearness of the atmo-
sphere that individual trees, wherever they happen to grow
singly, are distinguishable to the naked eye. The country
between the sea and the city is flat, and the shore
extremely sandy. The ground was as brown and bare as
it is possible to imagine, but the foliage of the trees
(almost all of the Eucalyptus tribe) known as " Gums,"
were of an olive-green.

Port Adelaide evidently impressed one of the West
Australians as a large and very busy place. On being asked
whether it surpassed Freemantle (the Port of Perth), he
answered emphatically, " rather." But to us it appeared
drolly small, and scant of warehouses and other signs of
trade. The buildings are scattered and chiefly of one
story, which, together with the almost universal verandah,
gave them a thoroughly un-English look, constrasting oddly
with the distinctly British names and announcements over
the doors and windows. Port Adelaide, small though it
looks, is a busy, thriving place. Several vessels were
loading with wheat, and a vast quantity of this grain
lay on the quay ready to be shipped. The harvest had
been so unprecedented ly abundant that, after providing for
her own requirements, the colony had a surplus of nearly
200,000 bushels to dispose of.

46 WHAT WE SA W IN AU STEAL! A.

The object which most interested us as we approached
the quay was an aboriginal, generally called a "black
fellow," at work among the labourers — a fine specimen of
his race, much bigger and stronger than we expected
to see. Dressed in European clothes, and with a bushy
black beard, strangers like ourselves would not without
some observation have discovered his nationality.

We landed about nine o'clock on the 7th April — autumn
in the southern hemisphere, but in temperature, during
the day-time, hotter than the hottest part of our summer.
The morning was lovely, the sky cloudless, and the scene
brilliant ; and though we found at eleven o'clock that the
thermometer stood at 90° in the shade, yet we did not
feel the heat oppressive.

Gladly we stepped on shore — our long and somewhat
tedious voyage completed — to meet the warm welcome of
the relatives we had come to visit. A railway conveys
the traveller to the city of Adelaide, a distance of seven
miles, in about half-an-hour. Our transit to the capital
was made in a loftier arid more airy carriage than one
meets with on English lines. The route at first lay over
the flat region, sandy and barren, already described, but
the land soon became cultivated. We passed between
corn fields — their crops gathered in ; the whole country
presenting a burnt-up appearance almost inconceivable to
English persons who have not visited the southern parts
of Europe.

Continuing on our route we crossed the Torrens River
which, however, on this our first introduction, bore no
resemblance to a flowing stream, but looked veiy like a
rough stony road (between two high banks or cliffs) upon
which a shower of rain had recently fallen, leaving little
pools of water in the hollows. The comparison suggested
itself the more readily when as we crossed the bridge we
saw a cart being driven along the bed of the river. Our
surprise may therefore be imagined when, about a fortnight
after our arrival, we read in the newspaper that his Excel-
lency the Governor had presented the medal of the Eoyal
Humane Society to a boy, for his courage in saving the

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 47

life of a companion from drowning in the Torrens. But
we were assured that though almost dry in the summer,
the river becomes a rushing stream in winter, and that
even at its driest there are holes in its bed deep enougli
to drown the incautious bather. Before reaching Adelaide
we came to what appeared to be a dreary expanse, dotted
here and there with trees; their foliage was of a dull
olive green and very sparse — trees certainly not calculated
to afford coolness or shade. On this brown desert some
very lean cattle were grazing or endeavouring to do so.
" What wretchedly thin cattle ! " we remarked. " Yes,"
answered one of our companions, " the Parklands cattle
are always thin at this season."

The Farmlands! This then was the lovely belt of
grass and foliage we had heard of from our childhood,
wisely reserved at the laying out of the city for health
and recreation. The land, indeed, was there, a mile in
breadth, but divided into prosaic-looking paddocks by post
and rail fences. Such was our first impression ; but, within
a very few weeks, rain had covered the arid soil with a
lovely sward, and though in many places the original tim-
ber had, we were told, been allowed to be cut down for
fuel by any one who chose to take it, in later years the
authorities, awakening to the value of this noble park, had
not only prohibited further destruction but had, with great
taste and judgment, planted much of the open space with
trees.

The Parklands enclose an oblong area, measuring three
quarters of a mile in one direction, and about a mile and a
third in the other, which area forms what may be called
Adelaide proper, but suburbs are springing up on many
sides beyond the belt, destined, no doubt, eventually to
unite with each other, and to constitute with the present
town one vast city. But the broad ring of open space will
ever remain in its midst, a breathing place and playground
for its citizens. Already it is one of the most pleasing
features of the young metropolis.

On reaching the terminus at Adelaide we thought we
must have stopped considerably short of the city, so

48 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

rural was the aspect of the wide road bordered with trees
on which we emerged ; but we were assured that we were
in North Terrace, the creme de la creme of the capital. A
few steps indeed brought us to the Houses of Parliament,
while the lodge-gates of Government House were within a
stone's throw. King William Street lay close by, in which
are the principal banks, the Town Hall, Post Office, and
other public buildings. These are very handsome, and
with intervening trees and gay shops impress the stranger
most agreeably.

In her wide streets crossing at right angles, and ample
site, Adelaide possesses capabilities for a magnificent city.
At present she resembles rather a scattered suburb, except
in the busiest part of the town, where the shops and
warehouses are continuous. The houses, usually of one
story, form short rows and terraces, or even stand quite
alone in their own gardens, interspersed with large un-
enclosed spaces. These spaces, we may remark in pass-
ing, are not an eyesore ; they are usually covered with
grass, suggesting a miniature village-green, with horses,
goats, and geese feeding upon them. This suburban air
gave us the impression, afterwards renewed whenever we
drove into Adelaide, that we were approaching an im-1
portant city which we never reached.

On the day of our arrival we made no stay in town, but
crossed the city and traversed the Parklands on the oppo-
site side. Pursuing to the fourth milestone a road which
skirts the base of the Adelaide Hills, and entering by a
lodge-gate an avenue bordered with the stately Moreton
Bay Fig (a variety of the Banyan, Ficus Indica), tall
Almond-trees, and shrubs whose flowers were new to us,
we found ourselves at Hazel wood, our aunt's house and
our home during our stay in South Australia.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 49

CHAPTEK III.

Mount Lofty Range — Norton's Summit — Treatment of the Insane in
South Australia — Inebriate Asylum — A visit to Mount Barker —
Gum Trees — German Village — Captain Collet Barker — Locusts —
Kerosene — DogVleg Fence — A Country House.

IN the next few days, after we reached Hazelwood, we had
marked experience of the great variations in temperature
to which the Australian climate is liable. The thermo-
meter was above 90° in the shade out of doors (79° in the
house) in the middle of the day of our arrival, and of the
following one. On the morning of the next but one it
had fallen to 49° out of doors, but rose to an agreeable
warmth by noon.

The heat having thus moderated, a drive among the
neighbouring hills was proposed, to show us their beauti-
ful scenery. Gradually ascending we wound among the
lovely "gmllies," as the intersecting valleys are called, by a
well-engineered road constructed expressly for the convey-
ance to Adelaide of the produce of market gardens planted
on the high land. This elevation affords a climate favour-
able to English vegetation, and all our fruits and vegetables
grow there in perfection, and in such abundance that often
they can be sold at lower prices than in English markets.
In the plains are grown, in similar plentifulness, the fruits of
Southern Europe, so that Adelaide is supplied with all but
tropical fruits from her own immediate neighbourhood.

The ground everywhere, except low down in some of the
valleys where creeks still run unexhausted by summer
heat, wore a burnt-up autumnal aspect ; but the native
trees, though dull in tint, presented in contrast to the
turfless soil a rich green, while the crimson and yellow
leaves of the English fruit-trees made the hill sides,

E

50 WE A T WE SAW IN A USTBALIA.

where they grew, a blaze of colour. The Epacris (called
the Australian heath), white, pink, and magenta, was in
profuse bloom in shady places on unenclosed ground. The
plants were sometimes four or five feet high and the
armsful we brought home resembled floral besoms.

From a lofty ridge, named Norton's Summit, we had an
almost panoramic view. On one side were the Adelaide
plains, stretching to the North Arm (an inlet of the sea),
and St. Vincent's Gulf, across which the faint blue coast
line of York's Peninsula was discernible: on the other
lay the winding valley of the Torrens before it enters the
plains, the reaches of the river bounded by range after
range of richly wooded hills, — a magnificent view recalling,
in some degree, that of the Rhine from the heights near
Schwalbach, and worth travelling a long way to see.

Two roads descend from this eminence, one circuitous
and good, the other straight, precipitous, and bad ; but we
were in a buggy — a vehicle so strong and light that all
roads are alike to it, and our charioteer was not one to

avoid difficulties. So down we went, F occupying the

post of honour by the driver, holding tight lest the acute-
ness of the angle should send her sheer over the dash-
board and the horse's head too. R seated back to

back to them, had of course the advantage on the present
occasion. Amid a series of violent bumps we safely
reached the bottom ; but not sorry that this our first
experience of a bush road was over.

April 17th. Although not desirous to see the inmates

themselves, F wished to make inquiries about the

insane and their treatment in the two asylums of the
colony, and with this view was introduced to Dr. Paterson,
the director of those establishments. The more recent and
larger of the two buildings stands surrounded by extensive
grounds in a healthy situation, outside the Parklands, and
at present quite in the country. The other is on North
Terrace, close to the Botanical Gardens, and Dr. Patersou's
house adjoins it. It has twelve acres of garden, vineyard,
and orangeries, cultivated by the men under the direction
of one gardener, and is in admirable order.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 51

The fruit, including this year ten tons of grapes, is con-
sumed in the establishments. Olives are now being planted
largely, and Dr. Paterson hopes to cultivate also the silk-
worm mulberry. Gathering the leaves will be a good
occupation for the patients. As there is no wall round
the garden those bent on escape cannot be trusted there,
but Dr. Paterson finds some whom he can put on honour
not to attempt it. The women are not employed in the
garden ; they make their own clothes and the men's shirts,
and get exercise and open air by working in the laundry,
and by walks outside the Institution. No personal re-
straint is ever used, except gloves on one class of patients
to prevent them from destroying their clothes. Dr. Pater-
son said he had never seen a strait-waistcoat in the colony
but once — on a patient brought a long distance from the
country. There is a padded room for the violent. Amuse-
ment is given in the form of musical and theatrical enter-
tainments and dancing ; and patients who can be trusted
are taken excursions in the country and to public exhibi-
tions. In fact they seem to enjoy, under Dr. Paterson's
management, the benefit obtainable from the most en-
lightened methods of treatment, so far as the accommoda-
tion at his command permits. It appears, however, that
not only are lunatics of very different social position, for
instance the paying patients and paupers, compelled at
times to associate from the want of more exercising yards,
but criminal lunatics, who have lately rapidly increased,
are for the same reason mingled with the rest. "The
increase in the number of idiot children also," we learn,
" renders it highly desirable that separate accommodation
should be provided for them, where they would not come
in contact with the adult population of the Asylum."*
Should a separate institution be founded for this pitiable
class, we would urge upon its promoters consideration of
the admirable Asylum for Idiots, established by M. John
Bost, at Laforce, in the Dordogne, France. There they

* Annual Report for 1871 of the Resident Medical Officer of the
Lunatic Asylums, South Australia.

E 2

52 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

dwell in cottages, surrounded, as nearly as possible, by the
circumstances of family life; and the success attained in
the development of intellect, as well as the economy of
the arrangement, make Laforce a worthy model for
imitation.*

The population of South Australia, on December 31st,
1871, was a little under 188,000, the males being about
6,000 in excess of the females. The insane in her asylums
on that day were 324, the average number during the
year having been 314, or one in 598 of the population.
In 1863 the proportion had been one in 738 ; and it is
feared that insanity continues to increase. In New South
Wales the proportion, in 1869, was one in 387 ; in Tasmania
about the same ; in Victoria, between 1859 and 1869, it
rose from one in 940 to one in 416 ; in England, in 1871,
it was one in 400 ; whilst in Ireland it attained the
melancholy height of one in 300. Of the 314, in South
Australia, there were 170 males and 144 females. The
mean percentage of death, for the two sexes, was about
8'5, being 10 per cent, for the males and slightly under
7 per cent, for the females. The total percentage of cures
was 47*7, but of these there was a large excess among the
females, of whom 65'S per cent, recovered as compared
with 38*3 of the males. The higher death-rate and smaller
proportion of cures among males is attributed by Dr.
Paterson to the fact that the man enters the asylum in a
state of greater bodily exhaustion than the woman, showing
that on the whole the vicissitudes of life in the colony affect
the one sex more severely than the other. Men recover,
he says, more quickly under treatment, but they also die
more quickly. Female insanity is largely attributed to
the severe labour of a colonial life and to the heat of
the climate ; while the solitariness of the bush is be-
lieved to produce much madness among men. The disease,
however, in their sex is also attributed, in great mea-
sure, to intemperance.

* ' CEuvres de Laforce.' London : Niebet and Co., Bernera Street

WHAT WE 'SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 53

A large proportion of insanity and pauperism being
distinctly traceable to excess in drink, besides all the
evils incidentally produced by it, it is not surprising that
a proposal to establish an Inebriate Asylum, following the
example of Victoria, should find favour. This project
was under consideration at the time of our stay iu the
colony. Soon after our departure, a public meeting was
held to consider means for carrying the scheme into effect,
and a committee appointed to pursue the enterprise. They
drafted a Bill to legalise detention on similar conditions
to those affecting the insane, which, after some alterations,
was brought into Parliament, by Sir Henry Ayers, in July,
1874, and having passed both Houses, received the
Governor's assent and became law on the 6th November.
This Act also prohibits the supply of alcoholic liquor
to persons whose names have, according to forms pre-
scribed, been published as those of habitual drunkards,
publicans so supplying them being made liable to a heavy
penalty.

The committee meanwhile made an appeal for subscrip-
tions to raise the necessary buildings which has met with
considerable success ; and they have appointed a Board of
five gentlemen, required by the Act for its administration.*

Monday, April 21st. We drove again among the lovely
Mount Lofty Range to the township of Mount Barker,
twenty miles away. In the interval the autumnal rains
had set in, coming down sometimes in such torrents as
we never see in England, unless in an exceptionally
violent thunderstorm. We were caught one day in such a
shower. In a few minutes the wide road had become a shal-
low lake, and the creek in our aunt's grounds which, when
we crossed it was a gentle stream, had risen to a brawling
little river by the time of our return half an hour later.

The rain had not been continuous, lovely days inter-
vening, but its effect was already apparent in the grass
springing everywhere, and a fortnight afterwards the

South Australian Register,' January 2nd, 1875.

54 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

country had fully assumed its winter colouring of vivid
green. This hue, surpassing in intensity, if possible,
even that of Irish verdure, it retained for nearly six
months.

We followed a route that was new to us, namely the
high road to Mount Barker which enters the hills by Glen
Osmond, a very picturesque ravine. This admirably made
road, and other public works, were constructed by G-overnor
Gawler, at so great a cost that the Home Government
were indignant, and recalled him chiefly on account of
what they deemed his extravagance. On his side it was
alleged that great depression prevailed in the colony, that
the labourers he employed could get no other work, and
that they must have been supported by the State gratui-
tously if they had not earned wages. The road crosses the
Mount Lofty Range, commanding magnificent views, some-
times inland, sometimes to the sea. Not unfrequently we
came on the traces of a bush-fire in the blackened stems
and withered leaves of large tracts of trees. A wide road
will usually stop its progress, but sometimes the flames will
leap across, and if the trees happen nearly to meet over-
head this almost certainly happens. The country is richly
wooded, though, except in gardens and orchards, there is
little variety of foliage, the gum-trees white, red, and
blue, and the kind called stringy-bark being almost uni-
versal. The former take their names from the colour of
their timber inside the bark ; externally there is little to
distinguish them. The blue gum is the most valuable for
building or manufacturing purposes, and, as it is now
believed, for its anti-febrile qualities ; but it is not yet
abundant in South Australia, whither it has been brought
from Tasmania. The red makes good fuel, but the white,
which prevails in this colony, is almost useless ; it will
burn, but gives little heat. The stringy-bark is so called
from the peculiarly fibrous nature of its outer covering.
Each variety sheds its skin annually, and when we reached
Australia the turfless ground, wherever the trees grew,
even in sections where they stood far apart, was thickly
strewn with the lately dropped bark, and this remained

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 55

an unsightly litter for many weeks. When the grass had
grown again not a vestige of it could be found.

But although the native trees in this neighbourhood
are almost limited to the Eucalyptus tribe, these vary
so much at different periods of growth, in different seasons
and positions, and under different lights, as to produce
almost the effect in the landscape of the stone-pines, firs,
elms, oaks, and willows, to which, in individuals or groups,
a strong resemblance may be traced. While young, or if
growing closely together — when their slender stems run
up to a height of one, two, or even three, hundred feet,
almost destitute of branches — they possess no beauty ; but
isolated trees send out branches on all sides, and. attaining
to a great size, they are often as handsome in form as our
finest elms and oaks, which would look sadly dwarfed by
their sides. We saw one on the estate of Dr. Everard,
near Adelaide, the trunk of which measures forty feet in
circumference, four feet from the ground. It has become
completely hollow by age, as is usual with gum-trees ; a
characteristic owing chiefly to nature, but partly to the
practice the natives have of lighting a fire against them
to obtain shelter from the wind, which burns away the
internal part. Although the gum-tree is not long-lived,
and soon reaches its prime, it seems to linger quite dis-
proportionately to the rapidity of its growth when it has
passed its maturity ; and nothing of the trunk but the
bark remains to convey sustenance from its root to its
widely-spreading branches. In this state it is often ex-
tremely picturesque, though sometimes it assumes a weird
and almost awful appearance.

On our way to Mount Barker we passed new enclosures,
whence the trees had been only partially cleared. To
facilitate getting rid of the remainder they had been ringed
— the bark all round the trunk, a foot or so above the ground,
had been removed for a depth of two or three inches.
The process of course gradually destroys vitality, and we
beheld the trees in different stages of their premature
decay. Most gaunt and melancholy was their aspect ;
and it was difficult to divest oneself of the belief that they

56 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

were sentient creatures, and of a sentiment of compassion
for the sufferings one fancied they must be enduring.
Some just beginning to sicken had a woe-begone, pathetic
air ; others were fast losing their withered leaves, and one
felt their case to be hopeless ; while others seemed to
stretch their stark arms imploringly to heaven, or raise a
bare, bony limb in a menacing attitude to man. Among
them were many from which the branches had fallen ;
and little but the bark of even the trunk remained. These
would take such fantastic shapes, that the gazer in-
stinctively likened them to hoary men clad in sombre
robes — perhaps a monk preaching, and holding his crucifix
aloft in ecstasy ; or a robber concealing himself in a many-
folded cloak ; or a warlock, his grey locks floating in the
wind, his outstretched finger warning of dangers to come !
Olten we came upon these weird plantations ; and if there
chanced to be a leaden-sky for background, throwing the
skeleton-like branches into startling relief, or a thick rain
making the outlines of these strange forms blurred and
indistinct, it was difficult to shake off the feeling that we
were among the beings of another world. The trees when
dead are sometimes felled at the place where they have
been ringed, and the surrounding ground is thus thrown
open to the sunshine. The stumps, however, remain a
serious hindrance, of course, to the plough; but "grub-
bing-up " is a slow process, and very costly if hired labour
must be employed, so that the farmer has to wait for years,
sometimes, before he can get his land cleared of every
vestige of the trees which once thickly covered it.

Houses of various degrees of size and importance, down
to the smallest cottages, occur at short intervals along the
whole route to Mount Barker. Public-houses are undesir-
ably frequent, especially as comfortable-looking inns are
in sufficient abundance to supply all reasonable demands.
Some of these — notably one, the 'Eagle on the Hill/
looking from a great height down the beautiful Waterfall
gully — are places of resort in summer from the intense
heat of the plains. Little school-houses and smaller
churches are to be seen in most of the townships, though

WE A T WE SAW IN A US THALIA. 57

sometimes these boast but a store and a post-office, digni-
fied, however, in virtue of the latter, with the title of
post-town. Many of the buildings are wooden, and scat-
tered among the trees of the primeval forest still largely
covering these hills, recall views in the backwoods of
Canada.

Hahndorf, through which we drove, is a settlement of
Germans, and might be taken for a village in the Black
Forest, so closely are the characteristics of the " Vater-
land" reproduced in the build of the houses, and of the
long narrow waggons, and in the aspect of the people.
Soon after we crossed the pretty Ovkaparinga, on whose
banks was shot, while we were in the colony, a specimen
of the almost extinct Ornithorhynchus. Surely it is a
pity to destroy, as the curiosity-hunters will soon do if
they continue to kill every individual discovered, this
interesting link between different classes of animals, to
say nothing of depriving a harmless little creature of the
happiness of existence !

A few miles now brought us to the town of Mount
Barker, distant five more from the ridge broken by two
low peaks, after which it is named. The mountain itself
(2331 feet high), is so named in memory of the gallant
and estimable officer, Captain Collet Barker, who was
murdered by natives in 1832, two days after it had been
discovered by the exploring party he was leading. This
gentleman, distinguished for talent and high character, as
well as for an amiability of disposition which seems to
have attached to him everyone with whom he was asso-
ciated, was a member of the same regiment, the 39th, with
Captain Charles ISturt, the well-known Australian dis-
coverer, from whose narrative we have drawn these particu-
lars of his melancholy fate. Captain Barker had been for
some years in Australia, where he had held the important
appointment of Military Commandant at Raffles Bay, then
a penal settlement on the northern coast of New South
Wales. He was remarkable for his consideration for the
natives, securing for them justice in their dealings with
the whites, and protecting them from the ill-usage \\hich

58 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

appears at that period to have been almost the rule among
the lower class of our countrymen, in their intercourse
with the aborigines. What, however, seems most to have
affected them, was the personal confidence in them he
displayed, going amongst them unarmed and without
white companions. The attachment evinced for him by
those who had learned to know and trust him was very
strong, and testified sometimes very touchingly. -His
death at the hands of a tribe to whom he was a stranger
seemed, from its circumstances, to have been a reprisal for
injuries suffered from the whites; and Captain Sturt, the
narrator of the tragedy, draws a parallel between the
character and fate of his friend and those of Captain
Cook.* A second naturally occurs now to the mind, in
the self-devotion and most lamentable end of another
victim to the ill-treatment of the inhabitants of these
Southern Seas by our own race — the good and gifted
Bishop Patteson.

The town of Mount Barker is quite a bustling place.
Houses absolutely adjoin on both sides the main street,
and this has a raised footway lighted with lamps, though
of oil, not gas. It possesses, too, a handsome bank, where
resided the friends we had come to visit ; and a substantial
head post- and telegraph-office, presided over by a lady
who has nine sub-offices in her district, extending, of
course, over an area of many miles. Gay shops, too, there
are at Mount Barker, but all had not, we feared, been
the scene of uninterrupted prosperity, for some had evi-
dently often changed owners. Three names and three
different callings were set forth over the door and window
of one. This did not, we learned, indicate that three capi-
talists shared the premises, but that that number had held
them in succession, while the present occupant made a
fourth whose name had not yet appeared.

In the many pleasant walks and drives we took during
our five days' stay we were much struck by the English

* Sturt's ' Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia.'
Smith and Elder, 1833.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 59

look of the district with its luxuriant gorse and sweet-
briar still in bloom, its well-made roads and winding lanes
bordered with hedgerows, its comfortable cottages, trim
gardens, and enclosed fields. The colouring, too, of sky
and earth, with gleams of sunlight and intervals of misty
rain, were homelike. If the morning were bright, it re-
minded us of March ; while the afternoons were autumnal,
and recalled October. There was a similar mixture of
the fruits and flowers of spring and autumn — if oranges be
regarded with us as appertaining to the former. Within
the short period we had yet been in Australia we had
experienced a variety of temperature, so changeable is its
climate, reminding us of every season in England except
the depth of winter.

Mount Barker was one of the earliest districts settled,
and, possibly, the first comers cared more to reproduce the
familiar features of the home they had left than does a
population born here to maintain them. Unfortunately
here, as elsewhere in the colony where cultivation has
been continued for several years, the land is becoming
greatly exhausted by a system of agriculture which takes
all it can out of the soil and gives nothing back.

One feature of the place during our stay was, happily,
not English. This was a visitation of locusts, a light
brown-coloured species, perhaps an inch long. There had
been a plague of these creatures throughout the colony.
In some places they had come in cloud-like masses, and,
settling on large areas, had devoured every green thing
upon them, so that when they rose the ground was bare.
In every direction we heard lamentations over the mis-
chief they had wrought, scarcely a garden escaping without
damage. In some places the people adopted the ancient
Eastern means of entrapping this minute but, nevertheless,
terrible enemy. They dug trenches on the line of march,
or rather of flight, in such situations that they became
filled with water, and into these the insects fell, apparently
without power of avoidance or escape. In the same way
they sank on reaching the sea-shore and were drowned ;
and being left by the tide on the beach, their decaying

60 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

bodies emitted so poisonous a stench, that wherever there
was a population to suffer from it, they had to be removed
in cart-loads to some spot where they could be cast into
the sea with a certainty of the waves bearing them away.
Now, however, they had vanished from the plains, and only
lingered among the hills in comparatively small numbers.
Still wherever we put our feet they rose from the ground
and fled before us in a series of long leaps, while the air
was full of their chirping.

One of our drives, the purpose of which was to inquire
about certain boarded-out children, of whom there were
several in the neighbourhood, took us to Nairne, a thriving-
looking little " town," of the dimensions of a small English
village. On our way we passed the pretty church at
Blakiston, of quite hoar antiquity, colonially speaking.
With its sloping grassy churchyard shaded by tine trees,
its parsonage close by and hardly another dwelling in
sight, we might have believed it some tiny church at
home, built as one sometimes finds them, in a corner of
the parish, remote from the village.

At Nairne was a steam flour-mill. Every available
space within the building was crammed with wheat, a result
of the recent abundant harvest, waiting its turn to be
ground ; and piles of sacks full of the grain lay outside,
sheltered temporarily by walls made of strips of canvas and
roofs of flattened kerosene tins. These are constantly used
to eke out building materials (so that Australian cottages
and pigsties often glitter in the sun as do the roofs of
Russian cities), and are converted to a variety of purposes
besides. Neatly painted they make sightly flower-tubs,
and sometimes even jam-pots are cut out of them. Kerosene
itself is as generally useful, for being the almost universal
light it is sure to be at hand, which in the bush at any
rate is a high recommendation. Thus it is utilised in
every emergency in which a coarse spirit is supposed to be
efficacious; it is applied externally as a cure for scalds
and burns, and we even heard of it being taken internally
as a remedy for rheumatism.

One day was occupied in a visit to a country house some

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 61

miles distant. In our drive thither through pretty wood-
land scenery, which unfortunately heavy rain prevented
our duly enjoying, we made acquaintance with the " dog's-
leg" fence. This is formed of bare branches of the gum-
tree laid obliquely, several side by side, and the ends over-
lapping, so that they have somewhat the appearance that
might be presented by the stretched-out legs of a crowd of
dogs running at full speed. An upright stick at intervals,
with a fork at the top, on which some of the cross-branches
rest, adds strength to the structure. Its advantage is that
it is quickly and cheaply made, no posts having to be
shaped or nailed together, or holes dug to receive them.

The house whither we were bound, which had existed
long enough to be well covered with creepers, stood in
pretty grounds laid out many years ago. It consisted of a
ground-floor only, but otherwise it looked like a somewhat
rambling old-fashioned manor-house at home. The large
and lofty stone-floored hall, with its capacious hearth, on
which logs were burning cheerily, served also for a dining-
room. The casements, wainscots, and doors, throughout
the house of Sydney Cedar, might have passed for oak to
an undiscriminating eye, though this beautiful wood more
nearly resembles mahogany. The drawing-room, with its
windows to the ground, opening on a lovely garden, had
its piano and knick-knacks, and new books and periodical,
showing that the accomplished daughters of an Australian
squire are able to indulge the same tastes that refine and
beautify our country homes in England.

The persistent rain compelled us to give up the pleasure
of walking about the grounds, which had been one special
object of our visit ; and continuing when the hour we had
fixed for starting homewards arrived, we were all urgently
entreated to stay the night. This we were unable to do,
but the cordial invitation was a pleasant earnest, amply
fulfilled, of Australian hospitality.

62 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

CHAPTEE IV.

Post-office and Trans-Continental Telegraph.

THE vast and complex organisation which has gradually
grown up around us during the marvellous development in
the last five-and-thirty years of our postal system, aug-
mented as it has recently been by the incorporation with
it of our telegraph department, has become so much a
matter of course to us at home, that we hardly regard it
with more attention than the air we breathe. But in a
new country there is still something startling in the omni-
presence of machinery so elaborate, which one feels to be
the outcome of the highest stage of civilisation. Thus
throughout our stay in Australia, it continued to us a
subject for astonishment and admiration when we recog-.
nised in every little township its post-office often also a
telegraph station, or met in some remote bush road " Her
Majesty's Mails," thundering along with the familiar
" V . B." blazoned on the red coach panels ; even more,
perhaps, when coming upon the telegraph line pursuing
its silent way through primeval forests, or climbing lofty
hills, or striding across plains uninhabited and to the eye
without limit, or skirting the lonely sea shore, we felt that
here was an ever-ready, speaking-tube with England which,
in a few hours, could bring us news of all we held dear at
home.

The postal and telegraph department, in the more
populous colonies of Victoria and New South Wales, has,
we believe, attained to larger dimensions than in South
Australia, and is, so far as we could judge, equally well

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 63

administered. We have, however, selected that of the
latter colony as a type of the institution in Australia, her
success in achieving the Trans-Continental Telegraph,
having earned for her precedence in this subject.

It was on a bright afternoon towards the end of May,
when the air was beginning to acquire a wintry sharpness,
that we availed ourselves of the kind offer of a member of
many ministries who happened just then to be " out " and
comparatively at leisure, to take us over the Adelaide Post
Office. This is also the centre of the telegraph depart-
ment for the colony, and consequently the headquarters
of telegraphic communication between the Australian
continent and the rest of the world. The foundation-stone
of the present building was laid in November, 1867, by
the Duke of Edinburgh. By the time it was opened in
May, 1872, it had cost 4S,OOOZ. — a handsome sum which
has produced a very handsome edifice. It was, however,
erected for postal purposes only, and the allotment of the
whole of the upper floor to the telegraph, inevitably
cramps the older department, so that additions are already
contemplated. A room might be swung, as was done
some years ago in the General Post Office in London,
in the central hall, which is between forty and fifty feet
high, but as this is remarkable for its elegant proportions
it is to be hoped some less disfiguring expedient will be
adopted.

In the spacious basement story half-underground of
the telegraphic department are the batteries ; these are
of two kinds, one of which does not require re-charging for
several months. The crypt is also occupied by the mate-
riel of the same department. The wire for renewing and
extending the lines throughout the colony, already mea-
suring nearly 3000 miles, and the iron poles for their
support, came from England ; while the insulators, of
coarse earthenware, are all imported from Berlin. It is
necessary, therefore, to keep vast stores always at hand,
lest the wreck or even delay of a vessel bringing fresh
supplies should prevent necessary repair, and thus by
stopping communication with the rest of the world blot

64 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

out, for the time, the whole continent of Australia, tele-
graphically speaking, from existence !

To the summit of the tower, 154 feet high, we ascended
by staircases and a series of step-ladders, the latter almost
perpendicular, and quite a feat to climb. At length we
reached the little cage at the top, which will only hold
three persons at once. The distance was rather hazy
to-day ; when perfectly clear the view must be of wonderful
extent, as it is alone intercepted by the Mount Lofty
Kange, to the north-east. The straightness of the road's
and flatness of the immediately surrounding country re-
called the view from the top of Ghent Cathedral. The
city looks bigger from this elevated point of view than
from any other, and its four or five large squares, its wide
streets, many of them planted with trees, and its Park-
lands, together with the absence of smoke, give it an airy,
verdant, and very pleasant appearance. The hills are
always beautiful — albeit the conformation of their lower
heights suggests, to the profane observer the idea of merino
pincushions very tightly stuffed — the plains now look green
and fertile, and the sea, this afternoon, gleamed rosily under
the fine sunset-sky.

On the Post-office tower a signal is displayed directly
the English mail is in sight — a flag by day and a red
light after dark, which the clearness of the air renders
visible many miles away. It could be distinctly seen from
Hazelwood, and our feelings may be imagined when it
made its appearance, on Saturday, too late for the mails to
arrive within post-office hours, and we knew we must wait
till Monday morning for news from home.

Descending from the tower to the ground-floor we found
it appropriated to letters, and the sorting arrangements
appeared to us similar, though of course on an extremely
reduced scale, to those in London. There was a lull, the
171 daily mails to the country, which mostly leave Adelaide
early in the afternoon, having been just despatched. But
there was yet a collection to be sorted for delivery in
Adelaide itself. The city is well supplied with pillar-
boxes, from one if not more of which there are as many as

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. G5

nine or ten collections daily, Sundays excepted when no
postal business is transacted throughout the colony, except
that the mails are not stopped in transitu, which we
were informed is done in Victoria. There are three de-
liveries in the metropolis and two in the immediate suburbs.
These, however, by no means satisfy the requirements of
men of business, who usually have their respective boxes
at the office, and send for letters frequently during the day.
The number of post-offices throughout South Australia is
348, employing 336 officials besides 56 others, who are also
engaged in telegraph work. Mails are despatched by every
steamer to Melbourne, and three times weekly overland, the
latter journey occupying ninety-six hours. Mail-omnibuses
convey the country letters where the roads are good, which
is the case for many miles out of town in numerous direc-
tions. For more distant places coaches are used, much
resembling a box hung high upon four wheels ; all the parts
are very strong, and leathern curtains over the windows
largely take the place of glass, the presence of which is
undesirable in a break-down or roll-over. The interior
is provided with straps to be clung to by the unhappy
passengers as the vehicle pursues its bumping way —

" Thorough bush, thorough briar,
Thorough flood, thorough mire,"

at full gallop. Accidents, thanks to the skill of drivers
and docility of horses, are more rare than might be antici-
pated ; but the severe bruises and fatigue attending a long
journey have often serious consequences, and are some-
times even fatal. The company, too, includes all classes
of travellers, and as unfortunately drunkenness is not so
uncommon that an intoxicated companion is a rarity, a
mail-coach journey is regarded, by most people, with great
aversion. We had intended to include it in our Australian
" experiences," but were so strongly advised to the contrary
by gentlemen whose opinion it would have been foolish to
disregard, that we gave up making acquaintance with this
phase of colonial life.

By mail-coach, omnibus, or ship, an average of 250
mails are despatched daily from the Adelaide Post-office.

66 WE A T WE SAW IN A USTEALIA.

2,000,000 newspapers, and nearly 3,000,000 letters passed
through it in 1873. There is a uniform rate for the latter,
within the colony, of 2d. the half ounce, while local news-
papers travel there and to the United Kingdom free of
charge. South Australia is well supplied with Money-
order offices of which she possesses more than 70, where
orders are obtainable and payable not only for and from
places within her own territory but in the other Austra-
lian colonies, New Zealand, Great Britain and Ireland, and
also in Germany, indicating the large German element in
her population.

There are about 3000 miles of telegraph in use in the
colony and about 60 under construction. The number of
stations is 94, and that of the staff 141, exclusive of the 56
partially employed in postal work of whom 11 are women.
33,535 messages were transmitted during 1873, of which
upwards of 9000 were despatched to the Northern
hemisphere.

The operating-room of the telegraph department at
the Adelaide office is handsome, spacious, and light. It
contains twelve tables — one for each main line — and has
room for many more. There are, besides, instruments
appropriated to special purposes. One communicates
solely with the " Labour Prison " or Convict Gaol, five or
six miles from town ; and the two leading newspapers of
Adelaide have each a wire, by which, when a message
arrives for either, a messenger is summoned to fetch it.

Several of the tables were at work when we entered, but
as soon as that for Port Darwin was disengaged, the ope-
rator was directed to open communication in our behalf.
The first message was despatched to Alice Springs, a
thousand miles along the line, asking about the weather,
the natives, and if there were any news ? We soon learnt
it had been raining in the morning, but was then fine,
that no u wild " natives had been seen for a month, and
that there was " no particular news stirring." — which did
not much surprise us. Sometimes the electric current is
not strong enough for a message to be sent direct to Port
Darwin from Adelaide, and it is necessary to repeat it at

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTBALIA. 67

Alice Springs: but we were fortunate, as our operator,
utter inquiring if the line beyond were clear, and receiving
for answer " Go ahead for Fort Darwin," entered into a
lively conversation with his unknown colleague on the
other side the continent. He began with " Good after-
noon " — a courtesy apparently de rigueur in opening and
closing a conversation — and then asked what weather
they had, and what news of interest. In less than a
minute, certainly, from the moment at which he had
ended his manipulations, the answer was coming back,
and was delivered without an instant of pause or hesita-
tion— question and answer having travelled between them
nearly 4000 miles. It was very hot, we learnt — no mon-
soon— a large bush-fire burning on the other side the bay ;
many ships were in sight, and people very busy with
parties starting for the Diggings.

Our operator then announced that the Hon. Arthur
Blyth and a party of ladies were present, and that the
ladies wished to know if they could advantageously ship
themselves to the Diggings. It was at the time when the
Northern Territory was looked upon as El Dorado, when
every day brought news of fresh indications of gold dis-
coveries hoped for or believed in, and added to the already
long lists of new mining companies advertised in the
Adelaide papers ; and when the small vessels which made
the voyage from the capital were crowded with would-be
diggers and representatives of almost every class who hoped
they had found a loyal road to fortune.

Immediately was the answer flashed back from a no
doubt much-amused manipulator that " a shipment of
ladies would be most acceptable, and would go off much
better than miners' Claims." It was droll, certainly, but
a little eerie too, to hear jokes bandied between wits some
2000 miles apart, and almost as rapidly as if they had
stood face to face !

Amidst such an interchange of trifles it was difficult to
realise the grandeur of the enterprise which had thus, as
regards all impediment to the interchange of thought,
absolutely annihilated the Australian continent. But the

F 2

68 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

progress of the telegraph in South Australia had engaged
our attention long before our visit to her shores had been
converted from a vague idea to a definite plan ; and
having been familiar with its history as it reached England
chapter by chapter with the monthly mails, perhaps
nothing exceeded it in interest in our rninds of all that
was new and remarkable in the countries we had come to
visit.

So long ago as in 1854, the extension of the telegraph
to Australia was suggested, but not till 1858 did the idea
take a definite form, when a proposal was made by some
of the projectors of the first cable across the Atlantic to
lay one from Ceylon to the Western Coast of Australia.
In 1859, one of these gentlemen — Mr. Francis Gisborne —
visited the colonies with a view of inducing their Govern-
ments to subsidize a cable, which it was now advised
should be laid down between Java and Brisbane. This
scheme however also fell to the ground. Meanwhile the
explorations of Babbage, Warburton, and Stuart, in the
country north-west of Lake Eyre seem to have suggested
the daring idea of carrying a line right across the continent,
from Port Augusta, at the head of Spencer's Gulf, to Cam-
bridge Gulf on the north-western coast of the province.
The author of this scheme, Mr. Charles Todd, Postmaster-
General of South Australia, had, prior to the arrival of
Mr. Gisborne, submitted it to Sir Kichard Macdonnell, then
Governor of the Colony, who embodied it in a Report
to the Home Government.

Mr. Todd's belief in the expediency of the land-route,
which he had estimated would cost very much less than
that advocated by Mr. Gisborne, was confirmed by the
further discoveries of Stuart in 1860-1-2 ; and when that
intrepid explorer returned from his last successful attempt
to reach the north coast, he reported that such a line was
quite practicable, and would open up a vest territory
available for settlement. The scheme, however, although
supported in England, fell into abeyance ; and it was not
until the British Australian Telegraph Company was
formed, which proposed to prolong the line of communi-

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTEALIA. 69

cation from England to the East, by laying a cable to
the northern shore of Australia, that the plan assumed
a tangible shape. A Bill was brought into the South
Australian Parliament to authorize raising the necessary
loan, and, supported by large majorities, it rapidly passed
both Houses, and became law in June, 1870.

Let us remember that the population of the colony was
then considerably under 200,000. To form a fair estimate
of the enterprise of this little community, let us imagine
the town of Newcastle-on-Tyne resolving to undertake at
its own sole cost the construction of a telegraph to the
shores of the Caspian Sea.. As regards distance this would
be a parallel case ; but the difficulties of construction in
an unknown country inhabited by savages, must far exceed
any besetting the European line we are supposing.

Mr. Todd now began to realize the magnitude of the
undertaking to which he had bound himself. By the
terms of the Act, just obtained, he had engaged to establish
in the short space of eighteen months, namely by the 1st
of January, 1872, telegraphic communication with Port
Darwin, necessitating the construction of 1800 miles of
line across a continent of which 1300 miles was terra
incognita excepting what Stuart's Diary had made known
of it. Iron poles for the timberless country north of
Beltana, wire from England, and insulators from Germany
— all had to be imported, the delay in obtaining the latter
being greatly increased by the outbreak, just as the orders
went home, of the Franco-Prussian war. The difficulty
of the task and its cost had, indeed, been under-estimated ;
but when this became apparent and fresh impediments
and unforeseen expense arose, and failure seemed imminent,
Mr. Todd never flinched from its fulfilment, risking health
and life itself to secure its completion.

Although the tract explored by Stuart was that adopted
by Mr. Todd, closer investigation of the country was indis-
pensable before despatching the constructing parties. This
important work was entrusted to Mr. John Ross, who ably
performed it.

The work of construction was divided into several por-

70 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTBALIA.

tions, a part being undertaken by private contractors, but
the greater length by Government parties. Each of the
latter consisted of about twenty-five men, amply equipped
and supplied with six or seven teams of horses or bullocks,
with auxiliary teams for the conveyance of rations and
material They left Adelaide in August, 1870. As the
portion of the line, for more than 500 miles north of Port
Augusta, was let to a private contractor, the Government
party, whose scene of action was nearest the metropolis,
had some 700 miles to travel before reaching it; while
the detachment to whom the Port Darwin end was entrusted
had to make their way for 1300 miles across the interior
before they could begin their work. Those only who under-
stand what travelling in a new country is, where forests
have to be penetrated, mountains crossed, rivers forded
however steep their banks or shifting their beds, and vast
plains deep in sand or thickly grown with scrub to be
plodded through, can fully appreciate the difficulties which
had to be overcome in these journeys where every part of
the telegraph, besides a sufficiency of food and all other
necessaries to last for many months, had to be dragged in
drays by bullocks, The usual pace these animals attain
may be three miles an hour, but there are frequent stop-
pages to clear away obstacles that cannot be surmounted,
to get out of holes and sloughs where the vehicles stick
fast, and, of course, for necessary rest. Thus it was doubt-
less good travelling, which brought the latter party to
their destination, far within the tropics, in nine months'
time, namely in May, 1871. So early, however, as the
middle of the previous September the first telegraph post
had been planted at Port Darwin (a few of the constructors
having proceeded thither by sea), and a fortnight later the
first at Port Augusta had been erected.

In July, 1871, however, reverses began. A contractor's
party, in the Northern Territory, collapsed. With the
least possible delay, instructions were conveyed to the
party next towards the south, under Mr. Harvey's com-
mand, to push on, erecting only half the specified number
of poles to the mile ; and thus eighty-two miles of line

WE A T WE SAW IN A US TEA LI A. 1 1

were accomplished beyond his original northern boundary.
Meanwhile a fresh expedition in h've vessels carrying 500
bullocks, and material and stores in proportion, was
organised at Adelaide, and despatched by sea to Port
Darwin ; but a portion of these were wrecked after being
transhipped for the Roper River. This stream flows into
the Gulf of Carpentaria after a nearly due easterly course,
and the conductor of the enterprise availed himself of the
line of water communication it affords with the telegraph
route. Then heavy rains set in, rendering travelling by
land almost impossible, and stopping construction for some
months. During this period of enforced idleness the cable
fleet arrived at Port Darwin, the shore end of the cable
was laid, and the vessels steaming away to Java, com-
munication between London and Port Darwin was estab-
lished on November 21st, 1871.

The inevitable delay in the work on land had made it
apparent that Mr. Todd could not keep his engagement to
have the telegraph completed by the 1st of January, 1872,
although communication between London and the Mac-
donnell Ranges (about 19° south latitude) was opened on
the 3rd of that month. He was, however, exerting him-
self to the utmost to fulfil it at the earliest possible date.
The management of the enterprise was now wholly in his
hands. On the 3rd January he started himself by steamer
from Adelaide. Reaching the Roper River early the next
month, he hurried from point to point of the line of works,
travelling now by water now by land, obliged on one
occasion, when ascending the Roper, to set the horses on
shore to lighten the ship, on another to sign a guarantee
that the owners of the vessel should be compensated were
she lost, without which the captain, in their interests,
objected to encounter the perils that lay before him ; and
filling the native dwellers along the riverside with amaze-
ment by the hitherto unknown spectacle of a steam-boat.

Heavy rains, in February and March, again stopped the
works, but as soon as fine weather returned relief parties
were despatched southwards. Their energetic chief mean-
while was inspecting finished work, and making final

72 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

arrangements at Port Darwin for the working of the line.
Not until towards the end of May was he free to start
homewards, travelling by sea to the Boper, and thence
across the continent

Port Darwin, or Palmerston, as the town rising there is
called, is described as very pretty. It seems to possess
many natural advantages, and appears destined to become
a place of much importance. In May, 1872, however, it
boasted few besides the Government and Telegraph build-
ings. Among the former was not yet included an available
gaol although one was in progress, and the one prisoner —
always in custody for something or other — walked about
at his ease during the day, on the understanding that he
must deliver himself to the authorities at night — -which
he never failed to do, for in no other way could he get his
rations. In this respect, as in many others, Port Darwin
had made great progress before our visit to Australia ter-
minated. It had then become a question whether the
Northern Territory must not be subsidized to pay its own
expenses including that of a criminal judge and his court,
who were needed for the due disposal of a class attracted
by the reputed gold-fields, and the increasing population.

Thanks to the Government Resident, Captain Douglas,
there was already in 1872 a public garden. The climate
is very favourable to tropical vegetation. " Sweet potatoes
and bananas are growing vigorously, real fowls Jay real
eggs, pork and fresh buffalo are great facts, and people
drink milk in their tea every day," writes a tourist com-
paring the comforts of even this young settlement with
the hardships of the overland route.* This gentleman
accompanied Mr. Todd's party on its return from the north,
and the notes of his journey help us to realize the character
of the country, in carrying the telegraph across which the
constructors were at the same time explorers and discoverers.

* 'South Australian Kegister,' November 4th, 1872. We are indebted
for much of the information contained in our text to notes of ' The Over-
land Route ' by Central Australian, and to a Report of a Lecture on the
•Trans-Continental Telegraph,' by Charles Todd, Esq., C.M. G., which
appeared in that paper.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 73

Turning southwards from the Roper, the need for an
admixture of iron telegraph poles, even in well-wooded
districts, is, he remarks, demonstrated by the presence of
large settlements of the white ant, who are destructive
to most kinds of timber. Their nests have been seen
eighteen feet high, at a pretty spot called Tumbling
Waters, near Palmerston, a favourite place for picnics —
strange to say where such companions are found. But
this altitude is probably uncommon. "In riding along
you come suddenly upon a vast plain, covered with what
look like upright slabs of stone about six feet high. . . .
These are ant-hills all standing at nearly equal distances
apart, and all presenting their faces to the same point
of the compass. They give the country exactly the
appearance of a large cemetery when seen in the broad
daylight ; whilst in the evening, when the sun is sinking
behind them, you cannot help fancying that they are
black-fellows, and the more you look, the more they seem
to assume that form." The " black-fellow " or native is
far fiercer in the north than his southern brother. He
not only had to be guarded against while the telegraph
*was in progress, but he still constitutes an element of
danger to the finished line, and to its staff. No small
measure of respect is due to the courage and self-reliance
of our countrymen, separated by a hundred miles, perhaps,
from the next station on the line, and possibly by a greater
distance from any township or even farm-house.

The natives rarely begin hostilities with the whites,
being almost invariably friendly if kindly treated ; but
they will watch long for an opportunity of making re-
prisals after being injured, or believing themselves to
nave been injured; and thus colonists who are themselves
innocent of offence may suffer for wrong-doing committed
long ago by their countrymen. Hence it is to be feared
that there will always be, or at any rate for a long time
to come, liability to attack in these remote places. Strict
justice, a kindly bearing, and at the same time an intrepid
front, in dealing with the blacks, are the best safeguards
against their violence.

74 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

Mr. Todd's party, travelling some on horseback, some
in four-horsed buggies, and well provided with firearms,
only heard of ferocious blacks ; they did not encounter
one. Every night they camped out in peace, and followed
by day a track as well-defined as if a small army had
passed along — as, in fact, it had, but an army whose
munition was destined to promote prosperity and good-
will, not ruin and slaughter. Deserted drays, skeletons
of bullocks and of horses, and empty preserved-meat cans,
lay scattered at intervals, marking camping spots all along
the route, while the blazed trees in the wooded districts
showed where Stuart's gallant band had preceded the
constructors. Of animal life there was little to be seen,
even near the water-holes, but much good country was
traversed before the party reached Daly Waters (about
16° 30' south latitude) on June 23rd.

At this place — named after a former Governor, whose
excellence is attested by the respect and affection with
which he is still spoken of — were assembled quite a crowd
from various quarters, though all were connected with the
telegraph, except an adventurous hawker, who had made
his way, with one companion only, full 1500 miles from
Adelaide. The line from Port Darwin was completed
thus far, so that telegraphic communication could be
held with London. Moreover, information from Adelaide
awaited Mr. Todd that the Government had supplied
horses enough to permit of his establishing weekly esta-
fettes between Tennant's Creek, to which station the line
had now been carried from Port Augusta, and Daly Waters ;
thus completing communication with the capital. Soon
afterwards — on the 22nd of August, 1872, within two years
of its commencement — this hiatus had been filled up, and
the telegraph was complete from Adelaide to Port Darwin.

Mr. Todd, however, had yet the greater part of his
homeward journey to perform. Advancing southwards
across a district where Stuart suffered from drought, he
found lakes and pools, although there appeared to have
been no rain for many months. Such variety in the
experience of Australian explorers is not rare, and shows

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 75

_ — . «

that no definite opinion on the climate and character of
the country can be arrived at until there has been much
more opportunity for observation. The weather on the
present journey was dry and warm enough, even in the
early spring, to make out-of-door-life delightful. Much
pretty though somewhat monotonous scenery was passed
through before arriving at Central Newcastle Waters
(17° 30' south latitude), a beautiful spot in a fine country.
Here were large lakes covered with aquatic birds, the
bean-trees and acacias were in blossom, and the air was
sweet with the odour of flowers. But Sturt's Plains, level
as far as the eye can reach, treeless, and covered only
with coarse grass, had to be crossed before the party reached
Barrow Creek. Here the telegraph station, including a
comfortable dwelling, is a substantial stone building. It was
already completed, and the whole of the masonry was the
work of one man ! Mr. Todd's arrival had been prepared
for by an address of congratulation from all employed on
the spot, the presentation of which was conducted with
due form. Barrow Creek was found to possess, like other
places, its advantages and disadvantages. Snakes were
appearing in abundance with the advancing spring, and
though there was no lack of water of good taste, it was
not tempting to drink, being milky in colour. Of fine
grass, however, there was a plentiful supply.

This station has since been invested with a tragic interest
by an attack by natives, of the liability to which we have
already spoken. It took place in May, 1874, when seve-
ral men were wounded, and one, if not more, died in con-
sequence. The station-master, Mr. Stapleton, received a
mortal injury from a spear; but he lingered for two or
three days. During this interval he was able himself to
" speak " his wife 1200 miles distant, at Adelaide, and
was thus communicating with her two minutes before he
expired. Terrible indeed to her must have been the
pause — to be broken by the news conveyed by another
hand, that in that brief interval of suspense her husband
had passed away !

There are cases in which, however, the telegraph may

76 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

bring instant help even to the remotest station. We heard
of one of the physicians of Adelaide prescribing " by wire "
for his patient, the operator at a distant point along the
line, who had, of course, previously described his symptoms
by the same means.

The route of Mr. Todd's party now lay frequently
through a hilly country watered with numerous streams,
liable, however, doubtless to dry up in summer. Still,
much fine country had not only been already opened up
by the line of telegraph, but some was already actually
occupied in consequence of it. The space, forty feet wide,
to be cleared on either side the line through forests, though
in itself a serious addition to the labour of the enterprise,
will, if this original design be fulfilled, be invaluable to
settlers, in preserving to them a road for traffic across the
continent.*

On the 30th October, Mr. Todd reached Adelaide, where
an enthusiastic reception awaited him. The Post Office,
completed during his absence, was decorated with flowers
in his honour ; and a public dinner in the Town-hall, the
arrangements for which had been undertaken by several
of the leading gentlemen in the colony, to Mr. Todd, and
the officers and men whose co-operation had enabled him
to bring his undertaking to a successful issue, testified the
sympathy and respect universally entertained for this
brave little company, and its energetic and indomitable
chief.

* The recent successful exploring expedition sent out by West Aus-
tralia from Champion Bay on her coast to the settled districts of South
Australia, under the conduct of Mr. John Forrest, gives pleasant testimony
to the cheering aspect of the telegraph. After a journey of six months'
duration, during which a succession of toils, hardships, and dangers had
been successfully surmounted, they suddenly struck the line of telegraph ;
and although they had still many hundred miles to achieve before reach-
ing Adelaide, their ultimate destination, already all their labours aud
difficulties seemed over.

The respective Governments of South and West Australia have decided
to construct a connecting telegraph, which will bring the latter colony
into communication with the rest of the world. It will leave the Trans-
continental line at Port Augusta, and be carried thence to Perth.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 77

CHAPTER V.

Orphan School — Adelaide Institute — Boys' Reformatory.

JUNE 5th. A bright winter day. We drove into town
early and were at the Orphan Home for Girls by half past
nine. Though arriving unexpectedly we were at once
admitted to see it, and early as it was, found the beds were
already made, the bed-rooms well aired, and a good deal of
scrubbing going on. The building, which is in a part of
Adelaide, where the houses are scattered, was erected
several years ago by private subscription for a hospital for
Germans. Funds, however, for its support were not forth-
coming, and after it had for some years stood empty, the
promoters of the Home were permitted to use the building
for that purpose, free of cost, by the hospital trustees.
These have gradually died, and the managers of the Home
have practically become the owners of the building.

The rooms are spacious and airy, appearing to us to
afford accommodation enough, even if the present number
of inmates (23) should be somewhat increased ; but the
committee have recently built hard by, though not ad-
joining (such an arrangement is common in Australia), a
large dining hall, laundry, and kitchen. This effort has so
exhausted their funds that none remain even for the most
necessary internal fittings. Cupboards, shelves, and even
hooks are wanting, and tidiness is impossible without them.
With this exception the Home pleased us much. The staff
consists of a matron, her daughter who is school-mistress,
and a woman, who comes twice a week to teach scrubbing.
The children, who range in age from three to fifteen, though
there are very few over twelve, do, besides the housework

78

all the washing and sewing required in the Home, but none
is taken in. Nor do the girls knit their stockings or learn to
cut out their clothes ; the reasons for their not being taught
the latter art are those we are too familiar with at home
when it is sought to excuse this lamentable omission, — want
of time and the fear of material being wasted. The girls
read and sang to us well, and their writing was fairly good.
We were told that they were seldom naughty or ill, and
certainly almost all had a bright frank expression, and
they seemed in good health, though not robust in appear-
ance, as few Australian children are. They have plenty of
space for play besides little gardens to cultivate, and they
are sent out on errands and to do shopping for the institu-
tion. During fourteen years fifty-two girls have passed
through the Home, of whom we understood only three had
been lost sight of, and but one was known to have turned
out ill. To be admitted they must be the daughters of
married parents, must have lost both father and mother,
and must attend the Church of England. Some are sent
from the Destitute Asylum and are paid for by the State,
others obtain admission through subscribers.

The Home was originally intended for children of a higher
rank than those it now contains, but very few, if any, were
found in need of its help ; the present inmates are of the
working class, and are all trained for superior domestic
service. They are not sent out until fifteen years of age,
and are not allowed to take a place where the wages are
less than 4s. a week. It is usual in Australia to hire servants
by the week, and wages range at least a third higher than
with us. Of the 4s. they are required to put Is. into the
Savings' Bank. They are allowed to return to the Home
when out of place, when if willing to be treated like the
pupils they pay only Is. a week; but if they desire to
be independent of school-rules they pay the same for
board and lodging which would be charged them at the
Servants' Home, namely 7s. a week. The cost per head
of the inmates is about 147. 6». a year, but it must be
remembered that there is no rent to pay.

On the whole the institution impressed us very favour-

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. • 79

ably. It is an object of much thought and personal care
to the ladies and gentlemen of the committee. The
matron and school-mistress evidently take a strong interest
in their young charges ; there is an absence of hard and
fast regulations, and the number of children is compara-
tively small. All these circumstances tend to make the
Home really what its name professes it to be, and to their
influence, doubtless, may be attributed the gratifying mea-
sure of success it has attained.

Many years ago, while the material wants of a young
colony left little time or thought for the higher require-
ments of man's nature, a few earnest friends of education and
social improvement, who felt the importance of both creat-
ing and satisfying such demands, founded at Adelaide the
" South Australian Literary and Mechanics Institute" where
a free reading-room, a coffee-room, and occasional lectures
would, it was hoped, offer superior temptations to those of
the public-house. The effort succeeded, and the institution,
gaining in importance as time went on, dropped that por-
tion of its title which implied a more special and therefore
limited sphere of usefulness, and was constituted by Act of
Parliament the " South Australian Institute," and awarded
an annual grant. It is managed by a board of governors,
who issue yearly a report which, though concise, affords,
both directly and incidentally, a variety of information of
much interest as illustrating the steady progress of the
colony in education and general culture. Two other
bodies, the South Australian Society of Arts, with a School
of Design attached, and the Adelaide Philosophical Society
are incorporated with it, while a steadily increasing num-
ber of country institutes, now about seventy, are connected
with it by affiliation, and are more or less provided by it
with lecturers and literature. Some of these provincial
institutes are of very humble character, consisting only of
a little room, open during two or three evenings of the
week ; but in the larger towns they are handsome buildings,
comparing, though on a smaller scale, with that in the
capital. An economical method of supplying them with
books has long been in operation. Boxes containing

80 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

suitable selections from the central library travel from
institute to institute, seventy or eighty being thus in
circulation at the time the plan was explained to us. A
request had lately been preferred by members of institutes
in some of the German settlements that their boxes should
be filled with books in their own language, which had
been acceded to.

The minimum Government grant was originally 5001. a
year, but this was subsequently increased to 15001, with an
additional grant of 1000Z., also raised afterwards to 1500?.,
to be divided by the parent institution among its provincial
off-shoots ; and though in the period of great and almost
ruinous depression throughout the colony, of 1867-70,
these subsidies were diminished, the Board seems to have
been always able to save a little from the country grant
which, eventually, it was resolved should be spent in
obtaining philosophical apparatus for the common benefit
of the institutes, provincial and metropolitan. It affords
pleasant proof of the interest taken at home in the scien-
tific progress of the colony that both Professor Airey and
Professor Tyndall interested themselves in the selection
of the objects to be bought. Lack of room, however, for
safely storing such apparatus had, up to 1873, prevented
the resolution of the governors being carried into effect.

Long since a collection of objects in natural history,
science, and art was commenced, which now contains far
more specimens than it is possible to display. Every
department was similarly cramped for space, and the
Government was being constantly urged (to use a mild
term) by the friends of the institution to begin a fresh
building for its use. From its earliest days the -South
Australian Institute has numbered among its honorary
lecturers the Bishop of Adelaide, the Chief Justice,
and other leading gentlemen. On one occasion the
lecture was from the pen of Miss Catherine Spence,
an able writer both of fiction and on politics, who is a
South Australian by adoption. Courses of lectures more
strictly educational are from time to time delivered. We
had the good fortune to attend those of Professor C. H.

WHA T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA. 81

Pearson, who, quitting England some years ago in search
of health, found a congenial home in the beautiful neigh-
bourhood of Mount Remarkable. To the great loss of
the colony he has recently accepted an appointment in
Melbourne University.

Classes for the study of languages and other subjects,
are held in the rooms of the Institute, under the sanction
of the Board, who guarantee the fitness of the teachers.
These are paid by the fees of the pupils, and, in the School
of Design, receive also a capitation grant.

One of the serious wants in a small community which
is yet metropolitan in character, and a centre of popula-
tion to a vast area, is the means of harmless amusement.
There is now a pretty and well-conducted theatre at Ade-
laide, where we saw the opera of * Sappho ' very fairly
performed in Italian, by a company who divide the year
among the Australian capitals, which have thus each their
opera season. But excepting that there are occasional con-
certs, dramatic readings, &c., it is almost the only place of
entertainment in the city ; and, moreover, not until of
late years was the theatre one to which respectable people
could resort, unless for some especial performance of high
character. To meet in some degree this want, periodical
soirees were early commenced at the Institute, at which
recitations, music, and readings formed parts of the attrac-
tion. They seemed for no very evident reason to have
lost their popularity when we were at Adelaide, although
we heard the lack of entertainment deplored.

In 1871 the Institute procured Parliamentary authority
for organising examinations for persons of both sexes,
similar to those of Oxford and Cambridge for our middle
classes. 'On application to the Royal College of Surgeons,
and to the Council of Medical Education and Registration,
to regard such examinations in respect to male candidates
as equivalent to the preliminary examinations of those
bodies, this important concession was obtained, whereby
the necessary term of residence in England is lessened by
two years.

The first examination took place during our stay in

G

82 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

the colony. Certainly there was no overwhelming rush
of candidates to profit by the opportunity. Three pre-
sented themselves, two male and one female, and of these
it must be confessed that two failed ; the lady passed.
But it was felt that an important means of raising the
genera] standard of education had been provided, and
good hopes were entertained of larger numbers and greater
success on the next occasion. The Institute, meanwhile,
had made the necessary arrangements for also conducting
the Melbourne University Matriculation Examination, the
papers of questions being sent to Adelaide, and the answers
returned under seal.

From the Orphans' Home we repaired to the Institute,
which stands on North Terrace, and has the appearance
of an elegant mansion, very suitable to its position in the
Belgravia of Adelaide. Unfortunately it was designed
without due reference to future enlargement, and now
some temporary additions are contemplated to tide over
the time till the colony can afford to erect an edifice,
worthy of its national library and museum, as well as
ample for all the other purposes of the Institute, when
the present building may be utilised for some other
public object. It has been suggested, for instance, that
the University of Adelaide long contemplated, though not
yet in being, should begin its existence in this edifice
when vacated by the Institute. Want of funds has been
the obstacle hitherto to the commencement of a Uni-
versity. Shortly before we reached the colony, a donation
of 20,000?. had been made towards this object by Captain
"W. W. Hughes, and a strong impetus has thus been given
to the action of an association which has for some time
past devoted itself to the enterprise.*

The library of the Institute, which is on the ground-

* The Adelaide newspapers have recently reported a similar donation
from the Hon. Thomas Elder. A Bill for the establishment of the Uni-
versity having been at length carried through Parliament, the scheme may
now be considered fairly launched, and the Government of South Australia
has already appointed a University Council from among the leading men
of the colony. — February 1875.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 83

floor, is tolerably commodious. It possesses about 18,000
volumes, including the "Specifications of Patents" from
the reign of James I., and "Hansard " from 1861, both
presented by the mother country ; and copies of Mr.
Gould's magnificent works on the (i Birds and Mammals
of Australia." The library is and has been from its com-
mencement, free to readers within the building, and books
can be taken away by subscribers to the Institute. On
the same floor is a spacious reading-room (used also as a
lecture-hall), liberally provided with newspapers, European
as well as Australian, and the leading English magazines
and reviews. This is open gratuitously to both sexes, but
women rarely use it. There were none present to-day,
but it was well filled with men, many apparently of the
working class. The coffee-roorn, where various games
could be played, has been closed for some time in con-
sequence of the little use made of it; but it is under
contemplation to open a smoking-room. F— - asked if
the elegance of the building might not deter the class it
was desired to attract by refreshment or a smoking-room
from dropping in; but she was assured that Australians
had far too good an opinion of themselves for any such
danger to exist. A longer experience of the colony, in-
deed, might have saved the trouble of question and answer.
As we grew better acquainted with it, we became well
aware ot the very general feeling of equality, unmistake-
ably though rarely offensively expressed. It is usually
accompanied by hearty good-will and friendliness — an
"I'm as good as you, and therefore ready to help as
brothers should " sort of manner, which is certainly in-
finitely preferable to the bought servility of old countries.
Now and then the expression of independence may go a
little beyond the bounds of courtesy. We were told that
working men rarely greet in passing ladies and gentlemen
whom they know, apparently under the idea that to do
so would compromise their dignity; and sometimes this
feeling of equality on the defensive may show itself more
roughly. But we never received any unpleasant evidence
of it ourselves. On the contrary, the good nature and

G 2

|84 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

kindliness of Australians of all ranks was so constantly
apparent, that we always had the sense of help being at
hand if wanted, wherever human beings were to be found.

But this is a long digression from the Institute ! The
museum is, as it should be, rich in Australian specimens,
animal and mineral; and contains also a large miscel-
laneous collection, including a set of antique coins valued
at 7007. This was bequeathed to it by a young man,
self-educated, we believe, who devoted himself to its for-
mation, and who, as he was never in Europe, had to pro-
cure his specimens through agents there.

The Natural History department is under the care of Mr.
Waterhouse, and we had the advantage of his explanations.
Among its curiosities is a group of bower birds, arranged as
if playing in their bower, which is decorated with bits of
sparkling stone. There are various bones of the moa, and a
photograph of one of the completed skeletons, sixteen feet
high, existing in New Zealand. Within the last few weeks,
paragraphs have appeared in the journals to the effect
that a living specimen has been seen in those islands ;
but moas, ornithorhynchi and other rare or probably extinct
natives of these regions, seem to play the part in Aus-
tralian newspapers that big gooseberries, eggs measuring
so many inches, and apple-blossoms at Christmas, do in
our own, and little faith is put in the reports.

In the museum also are parts of the skeleton of a gigantic
kangaroo (Diplotodon australis), believed to be extinct,
whose limb-bones were as large as those of the rhinoceros.
A small variety of the apterix, a wingless bird, is repre-
sented by a very perfect specimen ; another paradoxical
creature is a fish without gills, a native of the northern
territory. It breathes through the mouth. Of course the
ornithorhynchus is here, and there are specimens also
of an animal (Echidna aculeata), closely resembling it,
but whose mouth, or rather beak, is not made to open.
There is an aperture at the end, through which it protrudes
a very long tongue, and so catches the ants on which it
lives. This creature has quills like the porcupine.

Specimens in duplicate are of course utilised for ex-

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 85

change with other museums in Australia and elsewhere,
but great numbers of cases of valuable possessions remain
packed for want of space in which to display them. This,
and the numerous other deficiencies in accommodation, is
a very sore subject with the Board, who think Govern-
ment is not as liberal of aid as it should be ; while on the
other hand, Government says the Institute should more
nearly approach self-support than it does. Its expenditure
(including disbursements for country institutes), amounted
in 1872 to a little over 3500?., of which sum nearly three-
quarters was covered by the Government grant, the re-
mainder being defrayed by the subscriptions from about
700 members, and by fees for lectures and classes. There
were, at the end of that year, 63 country institutes. Their
subscribers numbered 2431, and they possessed among
them nearly 38,000 books, independently of those lent in
the travelling book-boxes. These statistics indicate a
large proportion in a total population under 200,000 of
persons desirous of culture.

We often visited the house of relatives whose hilly pro-
perty, called Stonyfell, is well adapted to wine-growing.
The vineyards, already occupying more than thirty acres,
make the round hill they cover a patch of rich red-brown
in autumn ; in spring, of softest green — visible many
miles off.

While we were in the colony, olive-planting on a some-
what large scab was commenced on a portion of this
estate, leased by a company for the purpose, and who
began operations on 130 acres. The olive-tree is calcu-
lated to pay the expenses of cultivation at ten years old,
and at twenty to return cent, per cent, on all outlay ; the
profits still increasing as the tree grows older. There is
ample proof in the abundant crops borne by olive-trees
only a few years old, in the neighbourhood of Adelaide,
that the climate favours them, and very fine oil has been
manufactured from the fruit, so that there is good ground
to hope its production may prove a lucrative branch of
industry in South Australia.

86 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

Stonyfell could be reached by a carriage-way, where
our pony invariably shied at the huge aloes in the hedges
and at the great tufts of acanthus-like artichokes, two or
three feet high, which, we believe, had rim wild from the
gardens and grew along the roadside. There was a short
cut for walkers and riders, and for very adventurous
buggy drivers, over a certain waste piece of ground, called
Clifton, a spur of the Mount Lofty Kange, commanding
exquisite views of some of its finest gullies, and also over
the Adelaide plains, to the blue waters of St. Vincent's
Gulf beyond. We marvelled that so lovely a site for
houses should remain unoccupied, and used to amuse
ourselves with selecting the particular spot where we
would build one were we residents in the colony instead
of visitors.

It is not very unusual to come upon such a waste plot, and
a sad eyesore it is, in the midst of well-cultivated land or
a thriving little township. It will generally be found to
belong to an absentee. The owner living in England is,
perhaps, unaware of the value his section has acquired
from the land around having become settled ; or perchance
he leaves its management in the hands of an agent, and is
unfortunate enough to employ one who neglects his duty.
Fences fall into disrepair, cattle stray upon the section,
and trespassers, regarding it as "no man's land," cut and
carry oft' the timber. Clifton, we were told, had been
beautifully wooded ; now scarcely a tree remains, and the
lovely gardens which might be laid out upon it would
require years for the growth of the trees essential for
shelter from the sun and from the " gully breeze," a fierce
wind which, at some seasons, rushes down the valleys.

The spot was rich in wild-flowers. Here abounded the
native daisy, a bulbous plant, blossoming in spring, from,
which the aborigines make a rich red dye. It bears a
small white star-like flower, growing close to the ground,
in the centre of brownish-red leaves, flat and radiating
somewhat like those of the plantain, so destructive in our
lawns. In the early days of the colony before gardens
were, the native daisy was planted and cherished as a table

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 87

decoration, but now that the loveliest flowers have been
obtained from all parts of the world, and bloom in pro-
fusion, this little wilding gains no more attention than its
namesake at home.

On Clifton grew also the scarlet creeper (Kennedya
prostrata\ trailing its brilliant blossoms, in form like those
of the pea, along the ground. There were, too, a variety
of orchids, and several small bushes of different kinds
bearing abundant blossom, insignificant in size and colour,
but having an aromatic scent. This odour we first
noticed on Clifton, but afterwards we became familiar with
it in uncultivated districts. It is given forth by many
plants, and also by the gum-trees, and is considered very
healthful.

Whether we went by the road or across Clifton, either
way led us by what looked like a farmhouse and its out-
buildings, with an unexplained erection a hundred yards
distant on ground so high that, being itself sprucely
whitewashed, it was a conspicuous object from all the
country round. On inquiry we learned that the place was
called Ilfracombe, and was the Boys' Reformatory for the
colony, so of course we went to see it.

Reformatories in South Australia (there is one also for
girls) are not, as with us, placed under the same Govern-
mental department with the prisons, but are under that
which administers poor-relief. A poor-law, as we under-
stand it, does not exist in any of our Australian Colonies,
which recognise no legal claim to relief; but in each we
visited, and we believe in all, liberal grants are made by
the State for the relief of the destitute. The department
which administers them in South Australia is entitled
the Destitute Board, the authority and responsibility of
which rests chiefly with its chairman, Mr. Thomas S. Reed.
He has under his jurisdiction the whole out-relief of
the colony ; the Destitute Asylum corresponding almost
exactly to our English workhouse ; the Industrial School
at Magill, a township six or seven miles from Adelaide,
for the reception of those whom we should call juvenile
paupers (who, however, always being committed to the

88 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

school by a magistrate, are under legal detention); and
also young offenders who find their way into Reformatory
Schools. Thus these escape the criminal brand, and
possibly it may be because they are not associated in the
public mind with the criminal class that their treatment
is less strict than with us.

Our visit to the boys' school was paid on the 12th June.
We found twenty-five lads there, but were told the number
had been much higher two or three years ago. We
rejoiced in such a diminution in their numbers, until we
learnt it was not to be attributed to the diminution of
juvenile crime, but to the preference of the stipendiary
magistrate at Adelaide (whence the greater number would
naturally come) for sentencing young criminals to a few
hours' imprisonment rather than to detention in the re-
formatory ; and also to the short periods for which they
are sent there, if sent at all — seldom for more than two
years, sometimes for much shorter terms.

The school occupies what was formerly a gentleman's
house, containing two or three good rooms and a few
smaller ones. These not sufficing, Government granted
150/. for needful additions. With this sum a large dor-
mitory has been built in a higher and much more airy
situation; and this is the white erection which catches
the eye from many distant points, constituting in fact a
very useful landmark. Of course so moderate a sum
would not have sufficed if much skilled labour at colonial
prices had had to be paid for. The work was chiefly
done by the boys themselves, under the direction, we
understood, of the master, and we thought it very credit-
able to all concerned. The room is roughly put together,
and not in all parts perfectly watertight, but it is pro-
bably quite equal to the accommodation its occupants
are likely to meet with as farmers or bushmen in after-
life ; and perhaps superior in some respects, for it is
very clean, airy, light, and spacious. Each boy has a
separate bed and good clean bedding. They wash in an
outhouse attached to the main building. At the end of
the dormitory is a little room partitioned off for an officer,

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 89

with a window overlooking the range of beds ; and at the
other a strong wooden wall shuts off a corner, which is
used as a punishment cell. It was light enough to read
in, and was, we saw, provided with b.ench and blanket for
a couch, though we were told a lad is never left in it all
night. We were glad to hear from the superintendent
that he had little faith in flogging, and much in giving a
boy time and opportunity for reflection. He said that the
cell was used for lads guilty of such faults as impertinence
to a teacher, and that few serious offences were committed.
The cell had been only occupied twice since it had been
constructed, eighteen months before.

A rather extensive piece of land belongs to the school,
but much of it seemed barren and stony, and very little
has yet been cultivated. A few cows and some pigs are
kept ; they of course are tended by the boys, and are very
profitable. We found eight lads employed in the shoe-
makers' shop, who make not only for the inmates of the
reformatory but all the boots and shoes required for
Magill School and the Destitute Asylum, i.e., for at least
two hundred persons ; and care is taken to teach these lads
their trade thoroughly, so that some of them are even n't
to be journeymen when they leave. The little boys of
eight or nine years old make straw covers for wine bottles,
which are sold at fourpence a dozen, and produce a profit
just covering the cost of the straw for the school mattresses.
The little fellows were working with a will owing, perhaps,
to their getting a minute percentage on the number turned
out.

Neither clothes nor bread are made in the school, but
the lads mend their clothes ; and two help the woman
who is the cook and laundress to the establishment, taking
turn in these duties with the boys who work out of doors.
All attend school two hours a day. We were shown very
satisfactory copy-books, and were told the highest class reai
from the fourth Irish national-school book. Most boys
come very ignorant, so that they must be efficiently
taught to advance so far during their short sojourn. They
rise at six in summer and seven in the winter. Work

90 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

stops at six in the evening, tea follows, and the interval
till bed-time, at eight, is given to recreation, being spent
in reading, singing, playing at games (draughts, &c,),
under the superintendence of an officer. There are also
two or three intervals of play during the day.

The cost per head in the Reformatory, given in the
Annual Report for 1872, was 11s. a week, when the
average number of inmates was thirty-five.

The dietary would astonish many an English school
committee. Half-a-pound of bread and half-a-pint of
milk, substituted sometimes by milk porridge with half
the quantity of bread, are given for breakfast and sup-
per : the boys have meat daily, with, sometimes, soup or
pudding, and vegetables a discretion. We were amazed
at this bill of fare, the first of the kind we had seen in
Australia; but we found the allowances as abundant in
quantity in almost all the institutions, including the prisons,
we subsequently visited. Food is far cheaper than with us,
and all classes use it liberally, often wastefully. We were
assured over and over again, in every colony on the con-
tinent we visited, that no one ever had less to eat than
they wanted ; and, with possibly an exception or two
among the street children of Sydney, we certainly never
saw any person who did not look sufficiently fed. A fact
so significant of physical comfort, and of the absence of the
most painful form of want, gives a wondrous charm to the
land of which it may be affirmed !

The lads looked healthy and happy, and had a frank,
independent air, which, even under the most favourable
circumstances, one rarely sees in inmates of similar insti-
tutions at home. Not one had a vicious or degraded
countenance. Evidently they were of quite different type
from the offspring of the dregs of our old populations.
The very light restraint and moderate amount of work to
which they were subjected, and the generally easy mode
of life they were leading, may possibly be sufficiently dis-
ciplinary for these boys, constituting as they do but a
small number, and therefore brought constantly into indi-
vidual relation with their master and teachers, who seemed

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 91

to feel much interest in their welfare. The conduct of
some, however, after quitting the school would bear
amendment, and it seemed to us that stricter discipline
while within its walls, and more supervision after leaving,
were to be desired ; and on the latter point the Destitute
Board appear to entertain the same opinion.

The wise provision of the South Australian Industrial
and Reformatory Schools Act of 1872, directing that
young persons shall be apprenticed on leaving the school,
whether placed out before or at the expiry of their sen-
tence, and thus retained under official supervision, would
seem not to be habitually carried into effect, as in their
Annual Report, issued in 1873, the Board states that
"it is found in almost all cases of complaints by the
employers, or discontent or bad conduct on the part of
the boys, the real or main cause may be traced to the
constant interference of the parents or friends, who claim
their children as a right at the expiration of the sentence :
whereas the Act contemplates and prescribes apprentice-
ship to service or trade, not only during the term of
sentence, but even on the day of termination, as the most
effectual means of keeping them from the dangers of their
former course of life and evil associations. This same
ill-judged interference has also had to be constantly
guarded against in the case of the younger children
placed out from Magill." Here, then, is the same mis-
chievous influence at work which we have cause constantly
to lament at home ; and whether we should most blame
ourselves for not adopting means of protection from it,
or the South Australians who, possessing them, do not use
them, it is difficult to say. To the neglect of such pre-
cautions we find attributed in the same Report the abscond-
ing of three boys from the school, and of three more
from situations during the past year. Such absconding
does not, indeed, at present imply the probable failure
in after life that it might do in England. Where food is
cheap and work plentiful, and where no criminal class yet
exists, the temptation and the opportunity for leading a
dishonest or vicious life are alike small. But, as popula-

92 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

tion increase?, the unfavourable circumstances of older
forms of society will be liable to arise, and it is of vital
importance to these young communities to prevent, while
it is yet possible, the upgrowth of a pauper or a criminal
class. To this end is essential the wisest and most large-
sighted administration of charitable funds whether public
or private, and a system of criminal discipline both for
adults and juveniles which, while it deters from offence,
shall reform the offender.

So long as such terrors of the law as are involved in the
apprehension of the delinquent, his trial before a magis-
trate, and detention in a police-cell for a few hours, are
found sufficient to prevent the child-criminal from re-
peating his offence, let these, by all means, be the limit of
his correctional discipline ; but if they prove no deterrent
to him, and he throw himself again within the grasp of
the law, his own best interests, and the welfare of his
country, both demand that he shall not be released until
he has been trained to be an honest citizen, and has proved
his (will and power to become a useful member of the
State.* The means to this end have been ascertained by

* That the milder treatment favoured by the magistrates is not, effi-
cient, the following paragraph leads us to fear. It is extracted from
the ' South Australian Kegister ' for December 5th, 1874.

•' The fruits of the defective early training of young men belonging
chiefly to the lower grades of society are beginning to manifest them-
selves in an epidemic of 'larrikinism'— a term first adopted in Melbourne
to describe the reckless deeds of the young roughs that infest the streets
of that city. The offenders are principally youths budding into man-
hood, who appear to set at defiance all moral and social restraints, and to
take delight in blackguardism for its own sake. They are accustomed to
go about in gangs insulting or maltreating the quietly disposed, according
as the humour seizes them, or as opportunity serves. Their operations
are principally confined to Adelaide and the suburbs, although other
centres of population are beginning to complain of their lawless proceed-
ings. Encouragement has been given to their escapades by the unwise
leniency with which magistrates have treated cases of rowdyism brought
before them from time to time. A demand has sprung up in some
quarters for the free application of the cane or of the lash to the backs of
the young ruffians ; but there is reason to believe that the existing law,
which empowers the Justices to imprison the culprits or to send them on
for trial at the Supreme Court, would, if rigorously administered, answer
all requirements."

The

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 93

long and costly experience in those old countries which
have been compelled, for safety's sake, to find the solution
of the problem. Younger states have but to follow in
their footsteps, and by the timely adoption of the prin-
ciples which have won the success of the Eauhe Haus
and Mettray, and of all similar institutions worthy of
comparison with these noble exemplars, to secure for
themselves the advantages which their predecessors have
purchased at great cost. Details must vary with locality,
and in America — comparatively a new country — probably
may be found some modifications in the management of
these schools appropriate and available in Australia. But
the guiding principles should be the same in all ; and even
in the daily routine of the older establishments will be
found much that may be profitably copied.

When we reached South Australia she was without a
Governor, Sir James Fergusson having departed several
weeks previously, and his successor, Mr. Musgrave, not
having yet come from Natal ; his place being supplied
by the Chief Justice, Sir Richard Hanson, as Acting-
Governor, until he arrived early in June. By mischance,
and much to our regret, we did not witness the ceremony
of " Swearing in," which took place in the Town Hall
in the presence of all the dignitaries of the land. The
regulation Levee followed two or three days afterwards,
and on the 14th June Mrs. Musgrave held a " Drawing-
room." This it was de rigueur to attend, and we accom-
panied our relatives on the occasion. Gentlemen were
received as well as ladies ; the hour was three in the
afternoon, and promenade costume was the toilette.

Government House stands in pretty grounds, which
boast the rare beauty of a lawn. The house must have
been a very modest residence formerly, but it was con-

The word " larrikin " is supposed to have originated in the pronunciation
of an Irish policeman, who, on being asked what had caused the appearance
before the magistrate of certain young offenders, accounted for it by saying
" they had been ' larrikin ' " (larking).

94 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

siderably enlarged some years ago, and is now a well-
looking mansion, though hardly, even with its additions,
to be called spacious. It contains handsome reception-
rooms, including an elegant ball-room. Thither on the
present occasion we slowly proceeded, for the attendance
was large, and we could advance through the hall and ante-
room only by inches. But once within the door of the
ball-room all crushing was over. Here one official gentle-
man received from each our visiting card, and dropped the
same into a basket at his feet. A few steps further a second
official gentleman received a second card, and read in an
audible voice the name thereon inscribed. The owner ad-
vancing became conscious of a group — a gentleman and two
ladies (for Mrs. Musgrave was supported by the Governor
and her sister-in-law, Miss Musgrave) — graciously bowing
to him or her, as to each other constituent part of the
stream of visitors proceeding from the door of entrance
to that of exit. All, of course, bowed in return — or should
have done; but it was rumoured so:ne forgot, presumably
in the excitement of the moment, their debt of courtesy,
and walked straight on, looking neither to the right nor
to the left. Passing into another room, the company stayed
a few minutes to greet friends, many of whom had come
into town from distant country homes, and to chat over the
events of the day ; and then we all dispersed.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 95

CHAPTER VI.

Visit to the Lakes — Strathalbyn — Langhorne's Creek — Wellington —
The Murray — Poltalloch — The Aborigines — Cattle — Campbell
House — The Coorong — Kangaroos — Camping-out — Mail Steamer
— An Alarm — Milang — Home.

As a matter of course, we had a great desire to see kan-
garoos in their wild state, well knowing that however
ignorant people at home may be of the geography; climate,
and flora, &c., of South Australia, the one tact of all others
they have accepted is that the home of the kangaroo lies
on that continent ; and that one of the first questions we
should be asked, on our return, would be — " Did you see
any wild kangaroos?" To attain this end it was neces-
sary to go a considerable distance into the bush, where in
certain districts these animals are still found in vast num-
bers, though they have not been seen for several years
within many miles of Adelaide. To express a wish in
Au>tralia is to have it gratified, at least such was our
experience ; and some friends hearing of our desire, most
kindly formed a party for the purpose of taking us to a
cattle-station, near the lakes Alexandrina and Albert,
where we should see these animals in their native condition.
\Ve started on the 16th of June. Our hostess Mrs. Samuel
Davenport, in her own carriage, accompanied by her sister,
led the way, and E and ourselves followed in a travel-
ling carriage of the country, viz., a small waggonette
with roof and leathern curtains, hired for the journey,
which would occupy two days. The gentlemen came next
day by the mail.

'Our road, for some distance, was the same we had
taken in our trip to Mount Barker; and Strathalbyn, a
pretty thriving town, thirty-five miles from Adelaide,

96 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

which we reached before dusk, was our resting-place for
the night. In the middle of the day we had baited the
horses for an hour, and though mid-winter we ate our
lunch out of doors.

Strathalbyn is very English in its appearance, the
more so as we saw both church tower, and spire, as we
approached the township. These adornments are rarely
seen in Australia, churches being usually built on the
model of the Bethesdas, Bethels, and Zion Chapels (but on
a small scale), with which we are familiar at home. Both
tower and spire we found belonged to the Presbyterian
Church, built originally with only the latter, but sub-
sequently having received the gift of a peal of bells the
tower had necessarily been added for its accommodation.
Strathalbyn boasts gas works, but the company failed,
therefore did the gas — and resort has had to be made to
the universal kerosene. There are one or two handsome
shops and several of more modest appearance, the place
being a commercial centre to a very wide district.

On June 17th we were on our road soon after seven
o'clock. The air was chilly, like that of an autumn or spring
morning at home, and there was an exceedingly heavy dew,
showing the very large spiders' webs stretched between the
fence rails. Some of these insects are of gigantic propor-
tions and spin webs among the trees, the threads of which
are so strong, they have been known to knock off the hat
of a person walking against them. The Adelaide hills were
completely hidden by mist, except Mount Lofty and Mount
Barker, which rose, dark-blue masses, above the clouds ;
and a thin mist pervaded the comparatively low land over
which we were driving, gradually fading as the sun gained
force.

Langhorne's Creek, nine miles from Strathalbyn, a town-
ship of about a dozen houses, is nevertheless a post and
telegraph station. At a neat little inn here we obtained
breakfast, and our horses rest — rest only it appeared it
was to be, for no food was produced for them. The apathy
of the drivers and ostlers roused our indignation, as we did
' not then know the power colonial horses possess of making

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 97

long journeys and long fasts at the same time. Some one
suggested that bran, the usual dry food for horses here
who seldom get oats, might be obtained from the store,
which was soon done. We afterwards learned that bailiffs
were in possession of the inn, which perhaps accounted for
the lack of food in the stable.

While breakfast was preparing we took a walk in the
township, Mrs. Davenport being desirous to buy poultry
and eggs for consumption at the stations which she repre-
sented as places where the commissariat for so large a
party might prove scanty — in our opinion, on the contrary,
plenty reigned at all we visited. Presently we saw a fine
brood of ducks, and enquired of a little boy, who was
munching a thick hunch of bread, whose they were?
" Mother's." " Will you ask if she will sell us some, and if
she has any eggs?" Our questions appeared to afford him
much amusement, as he entered a cottage hard by to make
this inquiry. Soon he returned with the answer, "that
mother had no eggs, and the ducks were too tough to sell."
A second brood was close by, and we asked our friend if he
could tell us to whom they belonged ? " Moseley," he re-
plied. We remembered having seen this name on a house
near, to which we accordingly bent our steps, and asked
Moseley if he could sell us ducks, fowls, or eggs ? It seemed
as though such questions had never been asked here before,
as Moseley was quite as much amused as the little boy
had been. Mrs. Davenport inquired what there was in
Langhorne's Creek? "Not much now," said he, "but

grass." R remarked that the inhabitants did not

look as if that were their only diet, " Oh ! no," replied
the man, " we get on very well."

Resuming our journey, having first provided some food
for the horses, as it was rumoured there would be none
at Wellington our next stopping place, twenty miles distant,
we drove over a perfectly flat country, at first between
paddocks, but presently entered a more barren region,
somewhat resembling " la triste Sologne," in the centre of
France, the Adelaide Hills looking not unlike the moun-
tains of La Foret. Here we first saw the mal!ee-«crub, a

H

98 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

dwarf variety of the Eucalyptus. It is invaluable where
water is difficult or otherwise impossible to obtain, for it
possesses large hollow roots holding considerable quantities,
even in the driest soils, so that it is almost a proverb that
where mallee-scrub prevails no one need die of thirst.
Passing through this barren region we came again on
beautiful grass land on which sheep were feeding, while
far away to the right we saw the blue waters of Lake
Alexandrina. For the last mile of our approach to
Wellington we travelled over thick sand, the few houses
of the township — including a large telegraph and post-
office and a little inn — seeming to have sunk bodily
into the yielding substance, for their roofs were but on
a level with our road till we came close upon them.
We sank ankle-deep in the soil as we made our way to
the door of our " hotel," as the humblest public-house is
called in Australia.

Here we first saw the river of the continent, the Murray,
on which Wellington stands — perhaps half-a-quarter of a
mile wide, muddy-looking, and running through a flat
country at the rate of two knots an hour. Ten miles below
Wellington, the Murray spreads into Lake Alexandrina.
The view up the river is rather pretty, with frequent bends,
flat pastures on one hand, and sand cliffs or green hills on
the other — these features changing from side to side with
little variety, we were told, for hundreds of miles. On the
upper part of the Murray, above its junction with the
Murrumbidgee, there is a tine wine-grcwing country. In
the neighbourhood of Albury, in New South Wales, wines
of high quality are made.

The river is crossed at Wellington by a ferry, the boat,
a large floating stage, being quite capable of carrying over
our two carriages, with their horses, at the same time. A
heavy swamp borders the eastern side of the river, which
was difficult, and even dangerous, to cross until the Go-
vernment at considerable expense raised a solid levee road
about a furlong in length, bordered on each side with very
strong post and rail fences, and having a gate at the end
furthest from the river. The purpose of the fence is to

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 99

keep the cattle about to cross the river on their way to
Adelaide from straying into the swamp. Before the
establishment of the ferry they swam across, and indi-
viduals among them were not unfrequently lost through
getting into this slough. A bridge is in course of erec-
tion by the Government at Edward's Crossing, some
distance above Wellington ; but in the opinion of the
Wellingtonians it should have been built at their town,
where, as they contend, the traffic is far greater. This
work was considered of such importance that the Governor
was invited to lay the first stone, a ceremony which took
place during our stay in Australia. A number of the
aborigines were present with their chief, a woman. She
was told she ought to speak to the Governor. Accordingly
she approached him, and, rather unexpectedly, put this
question to His Excellency : " Well, Gub'nor, what you
going to give us ? White fellow taken all our country ;
what you give us for it ? "

Since our return to England we hear that it is in
contemplation to connect Adelaide by railway with the
Murray. Crossing, by a circuitous but practical route,
the Mount Lofty Kange, the line will terminate at this
bridge. It is expected to materially increase the traffic
between the capital of South Australia and the vast
tract of country watered by this river and its tribu-
taries. Such a line will bring innumerable lovely sites
on the Adelaide Hills, for country houses, within half-
an-hour of the capital, thus enabling the " parched-up "
citizens, to use the phrase of one of themselves, to escape
from the heat of the plains.

At Wellington Mr. Davenport's manager, Mr. Sandys,
met us. He was to be our guide fifteen miles across the
bush to Poltalloch, the station we were to visit first.
Here we quitted the excellent high road from Adelaide and
had now only tracks to follow. Mr. Sandys headed the
procession in his buggy, our way lying across a grassy
plain, skirted by uplands, upon which grew the Shea-oak
(Casuarina quddrivalvis). This tree, which at a distance
bears some real or fancied resemblance to an oak, per-
il 2

100 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

petuates in the first half of its designation the name of a
colonist — Shea, unless indeed the whole is a corruption of
the native name. Seen near at hand its leaves, of the
sombrest green, are somewhat like those of the pine. The
sound of the wind among its branches is peculiar and very
mournful, well according with its funereal aspect.

We soon reached Lake Alexandrina, our road now lying
along its shores and over beautiful grass, thicker and more
luxuriant, we were told, than it had been for several years.
On our way we crossed the " Black Swamp," a dreadful
Slough of Despond, where travellers, unless guided by
those well conversant with the road, may be, in colonial
language, " bogged," that is, stuck in the mud with but
small hope of getting out. Mr. Sandys, however, took us
over so skilfully that it was difficult to recognise that we
were crossing a swamp at all.

We passed some wurleys, the dwellings of the aborigines.
They are small huts of the meanest description, formerly
constructed of boughs, but now more often of posts and the
blankets given to the natives by the Government on the
Queen's birthday. These huts are seldom sufficiently
high for their owners to stand upright in, and are some-
times closed in all round, sometimes open on one side, —
mere sheds indeed. They are apt to become very full of
vermin, and when too lively for its human inhabitants the
wurley is taken bodily up, 'and removed to a fresh site.
Our conductor knew the natives dwelling here, and nodded
and spoke to them as we passed.

Poltalloch is a beef and not a mutton station, and that
there might be some variety in our menu Mr. Sandys had
begged a sheep of a neighbouring proprietor, at whose
station we called on our road. Here were some more
wurleys; and Mr. Sandys having asked a question of a
woman living in one of them, she shouted in a stentorian
voice, "all right," and then turned round and stalked
majestically back to her little hut. Arriving at the station,
about eight miles from Poltalloch and its nearest neighbour,
we were shown into an elegantly-furnished sitting-room.
The piano, we afterwards learned, had been tuned by the

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTKALIA. 101

Duke of Edinburgh, who staid here during his sojourn
in South Australia. Tuners are, of course, very rare in
the bush, and the prince had good-naturedly employed
his skill for the benefit of his hostess. The proprietors,
with colonial hospitality, pressed us to visit them on our
return, promising us the use of their yacht for excursions
on the lake, but to our regret we were unable to avail
ourselves of their kindness. Returning to our carriages,
the butcher of the station, an old aboriginal, was waiting
to tell us the whereabouts of the sheep. His snow-white
hair contrasted oddly with his black countenance, as he
grinned at the jokes of his master and Mr. Sandys, though,
poor fellow, his wife at that very time lay dead. The
corpse was to be smoked and then laid upon a plat-
form of branches, and covered with leaves. She would
afterwards be hung up on a tree until the bones were dry.
Eventually, we understood, she would be buried. Various
ceremonies are observed during the process, and our friends
wished we could have witnessed a portion, but the tribe
lived too far from Poltalloch to render this possible.

Proceeding on our journey, still over the rich grass land,
we saw a herd of horses galloping in all directions, and
showing themselves off to perfection. Some were being
" cut out," that is separated from the herd by a skilful
rider and driven into enclosures, probably in order to be
prepared for work. Very soon we came through a gate, by
which we entered the Poltalloch estate or " run," and here
we saw a native on horseback, driving a herd of most
refractory calves, who had been lately weaned, into a small
paddock for the night. They would have strayed too far
if left in a large one. While the poor fellow caught one,
and turned it towards the entrance, others would be off in
several directions, to whom he was then compelled to give
chase. It appeared a very tedious and troublesome busi-
ness. We asked Mr. Sandys whether the aboriginal could
be trusted to persevere until he had driven all his calves
into their night-enclpsure. The answer was, that certainly
he might. This man has been many years on the run,
but M'hen shearing time comes he will go off, as he can

102 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

gain higher pay in that occupation. Natives make very
good shearers. A Victorian friend of ours told us, that
during the gold fever he was compelled to employ them, the
whites being gone to the diggings. He paid them at the
same rate, and found that on the whole (though some were
mere lads who had to learn their business) they performed
the operation better than the Colonists. They would
take the whole fleece off more skilfully ; and once having
acquired the art, they never cut the sheep with the shears
— gashes, sometimes even long and deep, being too com-
mon upon these poor creatures when shorn by whites.
This Poltalloch aboriginal can earn quite as much as a
white at shearing, but is not able to take care of his
money, and after a time he will return to his old place,
looking very miserable, and ask for work, which he always
obtains.

At length, just as it was growing dark, after driving
through a Scotch mist, we reached the " Station " — as
the house on a run is called — a cottage perched on a
knoll about half-a-quarter of a mile from the lake, and
commanding a view of the country round for a consider-
able distance. In the early days when the aborigines
existed in large numbers, and were sometimes hostile, this
situation had been chosen that the inhabitants of the
station might have timely notice of the approach of an
enemy.

The next day, as soon as the heavy dew had, in some
measure, disappeared from the grass, which literally sur-
rounded the house and its small garden, we walked
out towards the cheese-dairy, a quarter of a mile distant,
but were compelled to relinquish our intention of visiting
it, as the grass, ankle-deep, was still too wet to allow us
to persist. The cheese-dairy was established not for
profit, but as a training-school for the cattle. The cows,
who are milked once in twenty-four hours, have their
calves with them during the day, but these are separated
from their mothers and driven into a stock-yard for the
night, and thus become accustomed to confinement, and
learn from their earliest youth to obey the word of com-

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 103

mand. When they grow up, and are placed out in more
distant paddocks in herds or " mobs," as these are called,
they are more docile, and can be brought up to the
stock-yard with much less of the chasing hither and
thither which is injurious to them. A muster— which
our host had come down to hold, as the property was
about to pass into other hands — means the collecting of
the cattle in the stock-yard for the purpose of counting
them. This is, however, but rarely done, because the
necessary hunting it involves does serious damage to the
beasts. The cattle on this station are said to be the finest
in the colony, and command high prices in the Adelaide
market, — prices, however, which would strike English
graziers as very moderate. The prize-ox had been sold
for 43Z., and four particularly fine bullocks only fetched
25Z. a-piece. The cattle are almost always sent to Adelaide
for sale, and travel thither about eighty miles, in mobs
of a hundred each, at the rate of twelve miles a day,
walking gently and grazing as they go, and being always
paddocked at night. Taken in this manner they do not
lose flesh on the journey.

An old native woman who lived on the run was em-
ployed to wash linen at the house, which she did very
well. She brought a basket of her own manufacture,
ingeniously made of grass, and sold it to us for six-
pence. We asked her to make us some mats of the
same material and another basket, which she promised to
do ; but she seemed in no haste to set about them, pre-
ferring to stay and talk with us, or loiter about the house.
In fact, she did not depart to her home till late in the
afternoon, and we heard no more of our mats. She pos-
sessed the high cheek bones and flat nose of her race,
with black hair, in her case cut short, over which she
wore a dirty net. Her dress consisted of an old petti-
coat, bound over one shoulder and under the other, and a
blanket put on as a sort of cloak. She had nothing on
her feet, and her legs were bare to the knees. She spoke
broken English, and in the course of conversation we dis-
covered, what struck us as extremely droll, that the whites

104 WHAT WE SAW IN A USTRALIA.

speak broken English to the aborigines. Her manner
was extremely sociable, with a ludicrous mixture of the
self-deprecatory reverence of a dog, and an off-hand
familiarity surpassing that of one's most intimate friend.

On returning from our walk we found our aboriginal
acquaintance sitting in the open air watching a huge pot
boiling on a wood-fire. Asking her what was inside, she
answered, " White felfellows — ; " then correcting herself,
" White ladies' dinner." She was smoking, and at the
same time netting with soft white cotton without needle
or mesh, using her fingers as substitutes, and yet pro-
ducing perfectly even stitches. We told her that " white
fellows" were not sufficiently clever to do that. The
tribes in this district were in the habit of employing this
art for the manufacture of their fishing-nets before the
whites arrived in Australia. They use for this purpose two
kinds of fibre — one obtained from the blue rush, which
grows in the scrub, and the other from the roots of a water-
iiag common in that part of the country. " Scrub," we may
explain, signifies uncultivated districts covered with bushes,
in contradistinction to forests or to grass-land. To prepare
these rushes or roots they are steamed in the " native
oven." This is a hole in the ground, in which heated stones
are placed. Steam is then generated by water being poured
upon them, and the cavity is carefully closed. The next
process is the mastication of the fibrous material, which is
performed by the women, who will sit round a fire thus
occupied for hours together. When sufficiently mace-
rated the fibre is passed to men, who sit by and work it
up into twine by twisting it on the thigh, making it coarse
or fine according to the purpose for which it is required.*

We asked the old woman if she had any children ; she
replied that she had had one, a fine boy, but that he was
dead, for which she was very sorry. The reason for her
sorrow was rather startling: it was that "he would, if he
had lived, have earned a deal of money for her." One of
our party asked if she knew Mr. Davenport. " Oh ! yes,"

4 The Narrineyeri,' by the Rev. George Taplin, Adelaide, 1874.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 105

she replied, looking at our hostess, "I know that woman's
master," without the slightest intention of saying anything

rude. F was the last of us who remained talking with

her, and desiring graciously to dismiss her dusky sister,
benignly wished her farewell. " Good-bye, old girl," she
answered, and turned on her heel.

In the afternoon we had a delightful drive through
the paddocks, over the luxuriant grass, every now and
then sighting mobs of fine cattle, looking perfectly at
their ease as they grazed or reclined on the rich sward.
With the lake on one side, and low green hills dotted
with shea-oak on the other, we could have fancied our-
selves driving through an English park. A dead wombat
was lying on the grass near the water's edge. This
animal, which looked not unlike a brown pig, burrows
in long tunnels, so near the surface of the ground that
the roof may be easily broken through. The exits and
entrances, often overgrown with plants, are not easily
discovered; so that riding or driving where the wombat
abounds is dangerous, except to those acquainted with the
signs of its presence. On our way we met our black
friend returning with a companion to her wurley. The
companion we learnt was a co-wife — her Lubra, as she
called her husband — (the word is equivalent to spouse,
though generally applied to the wife) — possessing two of
these appendages, who lived in great harmony together.

Near to Poltalloch we passed a small salt lagoon, not
uncommon in this part of the country, the waters of
which sink in dry weather, leaving a deposit of salt on
the margin, used for salting beef at the station. The
lagoon, though on private property, is reserved by the
Government, who sell the salt.

Brooks and springs are also often brackish. Their water
is extremely unpleasant to the taste, until time accustoms
the palate to the salt flavour, when it becomes so necessary
that persons used to drink tea made of brackish water add
salt when compelled to make it with fresh. A brilliant
sunset, followed by the after-glow which glorifies the whole
landscape, bathing it in a rich flood of mellow light, added
to the pleasure of our drive home.

106 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

Next morning our party, increased to the number of
eight persons, five ladies and three gentlemen, started in
three carriages for Campbell House, a station on another
run belonging to the same proprietor, twenty-eight miles
distant from Poltalloch. In the course of this drive we
should see, we were told, the kangaroo. Very soon we
beheld a pair, but scarcely were they perceived before they
had vanished. With a few graceful bounds, their tails
waving gently from side to side, they were out of sight in
a moment. The tail is thus used to balance the body, not
as has been alleged as a third hind leg.

The kangaroo possesses a very effective weapon, in a long
sharp nail or claw on each hind foot, like a little bayonet
with which, when it comes to close quarters, it tears the
flesh of its assailants. It never attacks unless in despair
of escape ; in that position " old men " kangaroos are very
formidable antagonists. We saw several birds, hawks,
cranes, herons, wild ducks, and brush turkeys (Talegallus
lathami). These are tall handsome birds, in colour pale
brown mixed with gray, and are excellent to eat. Every-
thing is reversed in Australia, and these birds follow the
fashion, the meat of the breast being brown, while that of
the wings is white.

Quitting Poltalloch run, we entered on a district called
" No man's land " — so poor that no one cares to buy it
from the Government. Neighbouring proprietors have
a right of commonalty in proportion to the number of
acres in their possession ; and if space still remains other
persons may rent the right of grazing on it. Our route
lay across this barren region. Sometimes we came upon a
high road, which we should follow for a time and then
plunge again into the bush. This road is now out of use,
the mails being carried by a more direct route across Lakes
Alexandrina and Albert.

Passing a wurley, near Meningie, where a woman was
weaving a mat, Mr. Sandys stopped, and after greeting her
asked her to show us her work. This, with some hesitation,
she did, and we promised to buy it if it were finished on
our return. On being asked her name, she said she was
John Wilson's lubra, but afterwards confessed to possessing

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 107

a name of her own, Maria. John Wilson himself we
discerned in the darkness of the wurley watching all that
went on. We passed, at some distance from the town,
a school-house with an old covered waggonette stand-
ing outside. This belonged to the master who lived at
Meningie, and was in the habit of driving himself to school,
picking up his pupils as he came along. It had not been
unusual, we heard, and the habit may still prevail in some
districts, for the school-master to drive about the country
for this purpose.

Meningie, at the south-eastern extremity of Lake Albert,
is the landing place for the mail steamers. Telegraph
wires pass through the township, but there is no station
here, the nearest one being seventeen miles off — not an
extraordinary distance in the Australian bush. Leaving
Meningie we skirted Lake Albert, prettily fringed with
Australian tea-tree, a tall shrub covered with small white
blossoms. The lake is dotted with minute islands and the
coast runs out in long wooded points, reminding one some-
what of the upper end of Loch Katrine. A variety of
waterfowl abound in the lakes, teal, ducks, cootes, herons,
pelicans, and black swans, the white or black forms of the
larger birds floating majestically on the still waters. The
remainder of our drive led over undulating ground rather
thickly wooded ; indeed, the lower trees were often pushed
aside by our carriages as we followed the best track we
could find, which brought us to Campbell House, after a
pleasant journey of five or six hours.

In the course of our drive we saw several kangaroos,
but we never came on any herds of these animals. In
some parts of the colony they may still be seen in vast
numbers. The extirpation of the dingo, or wild dog, their
natural enemy, has allowed them to multiply enormously.
Thus they have become in some districts so serious an
evil to the squatter, by devouring the food needed for his
sheep, that he is compelled to have them destroyed by the
thousand at a time.*

* The squatter, a word said to have been imported from America, is the
holder of a run for sheep or cattle, and in social position corresponds,
roughly speaking, to the squire at home.

1 08 WHA T WE SAW IN A US THALIA.

Campbell House stands on rising ground overlooking
Lake Albert, which opens widely, and though it has no
lofty banks its shores are pretty and a range of hills is seen
faintly in the distance.

The next morning we drove some ten miles across the
run, to see the Coorong, an inlet of the sea eighty miles
long but extremely narrow, and separated from the ocean
by a range of low sandy hills, not too barren to produce
good grass. These hills are part of the Campbell House
estate, and horses belonging to the station are pastured
there, easily swimming across the narrow gulf. Our road
lay first through grassy paddocks and then across a wooded
country. The trees, which are chiefly shea-oak, are very
valuable for fuel. They are, however, fast disappearing in
this neighbourhood, because the cattle, by eating off the
shoots of the young trees, prevent their attaining maturity.
The native honey-suckle and other shrubs are plentiful —
one, the native box, much more like our myrtle, has fragrant
leaves and bears white blossoms. The native myrtle, a
larger tree, also grows here but not so abundantly.

In scorched shea-oaks and dead box trees, we saw the
traces of an extensive bush-fire, which had raged the year
before. Bush-fires are still unhappily very common. Travel-
lers throw away burning lucifers after lighting their pipes ;
and in summer this is quite sufficient to kindle a fire.
The one of which we saw the vestiges, had originated in
some agricultural operation at Point Macleay, a mission
station, fifteen miles from Campbell House. A part of the
mischief it caused was the destruction of from eight to nine
miles of the fencing on this run.

On reaching some high ground, a lovely view lay before
us. We saw through the trees the shining waters of the
Coorong with, here and there, groups vOf pelicans and
the graceful black swan, accompanied by large flocks of
lesser aquatic birds; and beyond were the hills, prettily
wooded, dividing the inlet from the ocean, the beauty of
all enhanced by the brilliancy of the Australian sky. We
saw several kangaroos of a small species, known as the
doolatchi. Sometimes they would be sitting quite at their
ease until we approached, when they bounded away and were

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 109

soon out of reach. At others, either they did not see us,
or we did not alarm them, for occasionally they appeared
to watch us steadily while quietly seated on their haunches.

Also we carne upon a nest of the native pheasant, a
large dome-shaped mound made of dead leaves and sand,
with four tunnel-like entrances. When full it contains a
very large number of eggs, which are hatched by the heat
generated by the decaying leaves. Numerous hen phea-
sants use one nest, and are said to be conducted thither
by the cock when about to lay their eggs. The bird
itself we never saw in its wild state.

We had often expressed a wish to " camp out," and had
been laughingly advised to try the experiment by day.
On our return to the station we found our kind host had
made preparations to gratify this desire. Two enormous
camp fires of shea-oak were burning in the paddock near
the house, one for us to sit by while our meal was cooked
at the other. But as we were very anxious to see the
actual cooking of the food, we sat down before the kitchen
fire and were made perfectly comfortable, on cushions,
cautiously setting our backs against the huge plants of
the grass tree. Not, however, that this is a tree at all. It
grows in tussocks, having pointed leaves from two to three
feet long, and half an inch wide at the base, with edges so
sharp that they may give a severe cut if incautiously
handled.

The gentlemen of the party were the cooks. First
Mr. Sandys, an experienced bushman, with coat-sleeves
turned up, began his manufacture of damper ; an art only
acquired in perfection by considerable practice. Having
scraped a small hollow in the ground, he spread a
piece of sacking in it, and on this put his flour, with
a little salt, mixing it into dough with water, and then
working it well up, kneading, patting and turning it
with praiseworthy perseverance. Meanwhile, Mr. Daven-
port was busy with a " quart-pot." This is a strong tin
mug, with two handles of wire fixed on the same side,
through which a stick can be conveniently passed, to
remove the pot from the fire when too hot for the hand to

110 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

approach. This he placed full of water by the fire, and
as soon as it boiled threw in a handful of tea, letting
it continue to boil a few minutes ; sugar was then added,
and our " quart-pot tea " was ready. The other gentlemen
meanwhile cut small steaks from a shoulder of mutton,
which they toasted, some on forked sticks skilfully propped
before the fire, others being broiled on the hot ashes. As,
however, these processes consumed much less time than the
baking of damper, Mr. Sandys proposed that he should
make some " Johnny cakes," that is baby-dampers, in the
shape of captain's biscuits, though somewhat larger, which
were quickly baked on the embers. The large damper,
two inches thick and eighteen in circumference, was after-
wards baked by being placed on the ashes so far cooled
as to have become black, and covered with similar ones.
This, when cold, was porous, and very palatable.

All was now ready. Grass-tree leaves were presented to
each of the ladies, which, being held in a peculiar manner
between the fingers of the left hand, in which we were
duly instructed, formed by no means contemptible plates.
We made a sandwich of Johnny cake and mutton steak,
held fast by pressing the left thumb against it, enabling
us to cut off pieces with a knife held in the right hand.
But our host deviated from the true bush meal, for he
gave us cups and cream, refinements unknown to real
campers-out. The tea should be drunk from tin pannikins
— small mugs with handles, — and it should also be drunk
" oval,"* i.e., without milk or cream. But that we might
not fail in any particular we also drank some milkless tea
from the pannikin. This pannikin, a piece of sacking,
and a knife, are all the cooking utensils needed by a
bushman when on his travels.

We scarcely remember having enjoyed any meal in our
lives more than this impromptu one ; and after its con-
clusion sat luxuriating in the delicious warmth of the fire,
while some members of the party made sketches of the
group. Drawing-paper, as may be easily imagined, is a

* Tea without milk or sugar ie called square, with both, round.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. Ill

luxury not generally found in camping-out ; but bushmen
are never at a loss, and paper collars supplied the de-
ficiency. These sketches we claimed, and preserve as a
memento of that happy day. One of the ladies remarked
that we were like white " Lubras," as we sat on the ground
by the fire ; but it was answered, that had we been real
Lubras we should not have reclined at our ease, well sup-
plied with everything we required, but should have been
compelled first to cook the meal, and then to retire behind
our lords and masters while they enjoyed it, patiently
waiting for the bits they chose to throw to us over their
shoulders ; we in our turn casting the bones in like manner
to the dogs, who would range themselves behind us. This.
however, relates rather to the past than to the present, for
even among the Australian aborigines some improvement
has taken place in the position of women. Mr. Sandys
told us that now they would be permitted to eat with the
men.

The next morning we again "were taken for a drive to
several fine points of view. The day was bright and genial.
Our route lay over a much more open country than that
we had before traversed. From time to time we came on
small mobs of cattle, twenty or thirty perhaps, scattered
over a rich bit of pasture ; and every now and then a
wallabi, an animal of the .kangaroo kind, but consider-
ably less in size, would start from the rushy-grass or scrub
almost beneath the horses' feet, and scudding away, be
quickly lost in the bushes. Skeletons of oxen were not
infrequent. These animals had died on the " run," and
as it had never been worth while to bury them their
bones had whitened in the sun. Our finest point of view
was a spot on Lake Albert, Loveday Bay, from which
we looked across the water towards the hills to the north-
east, near Cape Jervis.

We were up before daylight the following day, to start on
our return to Adelaide. Our hosts were going back to

Poltalloch, but E and ourselves intended to embark on

the mail steamer at Meningie, cross the lakes to Milang,
and go thence home by the mail omnibus. An early de-

112 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

parture was necessitated by our having to drive fifteen
miles to Meningie, and be ready to embark at 8 o'clock,
a.m., the hour when the mail, coming overland from Mel-
bourne, was due. On week-days it was generally punctual,
but this was Sunday, and it might reach Meningie some
hours later ; as in fact proved to be the case, for we did
not embark till past one. Fortunately there was a decent
little inn, where we all breakfasted a T Australienne. Tea,
coffee, eggs, and meat we were prepared for, but we were
somewhat surprised by what followed. A general con-
fusion of meals seems to prevail in this part of the world.
Tea is often served at dinner, and meat always at tea, and
here was a jam tart and rich pluin cake for breakfast !

At length the mail arrived, and we embarked on board
the steamer, after taking a grateful farewell of our hospit-
able friends. Our boat, ' The Diving Duck,' was a queer
little craft, some 40 feet long by 10 or 12 feet wide, un-
painted, with the minute boiler of its minute engine
uncovered on the deck, looking like a huge kitchen kettle.
The deck itself rounded towards the edge, without any rail-
ing, required as much circumspection in traversing, to avoid
falling into the water, as a Blondin might have learnt to
exercise. Below there was a cabin, rather dark, with table
and benches, all in a very rough condition.

It must not, however, be supposed that this is the
ordinary state of the Australian mail boats. The con-
tractors had been compelled to use the Diving Duck
before she was finished ; paint, bulwarks, and seats on deck
would be doubtless supplied as time permitted. As our
object was of course to see the scenery, we could not
remain in the little cabin. The only safe plan, therefore,
was to sit down on the edge of the companion, our legs
dangling, or resting on the step ladder beneath; and
never to stir from thence until we reached our destination.

Lake Albert has pretty shores, sloping gently to the
water's edge, dotted with trees and carpetted with rich
grass at this season of emerald green. We had proceeded
about an hour and were enjoying the view, when our boat
came to a sudden stop, and on enquiry we were told some-

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 113

thing was amiss with the engine. Immediately a process
of hammering and tinkering began, while we remained on
our perches, not daring to move, and uncertain as to our
ultimate fate. The boat did not possess a sail, and if the
engine could not be set right what should we do? Our
position appeared somewhat awkward. It was certainly
not re-assuring that one of the crew who, when we started,
had described the new vessel in a highly eulogistic man-
ner, as soon as the engine stopped entirely changed his
note, and was as depreciatory as he had before been
boastful.

E indeed beheld death staring us in the face, and

bitterly reproached herself with having led us to destruc-
tion— most unjustly reproached herself, for we had cer-
tainly been voluntary agents in choosing our present route.
We were at a loss to understand the ground of her exces-
sive alarm, because we did not realise what she was well
aware of — that, being out of sight of Meningie, no help
from the shore could be expected. The boat attached to
the stern of the ' Diving Duck ' would have carried pas-
sengers, crew, and Her Majesty's mails to the nearest shore,
distant about three miles. But this fact did not lessen our
cousin's anxiety, for even if we should reach land there
might be twenty or thirty miles of pathless bush to traverse
before food -or shelter could be obtained ; thus starvation
on board or death from fatigue on land were the only
alternatives present to her mind. The sequel, however,
proved that the former at least need not have been feared.
In due time an Australian tea was served in the cabin ;
and a further supply of food was displayed by a sailor,
who showed us two kangaroo tails he had to dispose of.

But in less than half an hour the tinkering was successful,
the engine was at work again, and we proceeded cheerily
on our voyage, the scenery improving as we advanced
towards Lake Alexandrina and the mountains on its
western shore came more distinctly into view. The
channel between the two lakes, about half a mile broad and
five long, was very lovely, bordered with tall reeds looking
golden in the declining sun. Half hidden behind them,

114 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

as we emerged into Lake Alexandrina, was an aboriginal
in his boat, ostensibly occupied in fishing, but really in
watching our steamer. He called himself " the great Mr.
Board," having adopted the name of the settler on whose
land he worked. This is not uncommon among the abo-
rigines, though sometimes the patronymic of a colonist
whom they specially esteem obtains their preference.
Our vessel was a screw — a species of steamer new on
Lake Alexandrina, and very perplexing to the natives,
and the great Mr. Board was watching its progress to dis-
cover, if possible, its motive power. He could understand
why paddle-wheels should propel a vessel, but the screw,
being invisible, made the movement of the steamer quite
incomprehensible. When we had passed he emerged from
among the reeds, and standing up in his boat and rapidly
propelling the little craft with his double-bladed paddle,
was quickly out of sight.

Soon alter entering the second lake we passed on the
left a fine bluff, Point Macleay, near which is the mission
station established, in 1859, for the instruction and con-
version of the lake tribes of the aborigines. The white
cottages of the inhabitants looked extremely pretty. We
much regretted we could not pay it a visit, and see for our-
selves what had there been effected for their civilisation ;
but a narrative by the Superintendent of Point Macleay,
enables us to give the following information concerning
them.* These tribes, eighteen in number, call themselves
Narrinyeri, an abbreviation of "Kornarrinyeri, from Korna,
men, and inyeri, belonging to." Proud of this title, they
designate other aboriginal nations " Wild black fellows."
One of these, the Merkani, located near them, used to be
cannibals, and stole fat members of adjacent tribes to eat.
In those days, if the wife of a Narrinyeri were stout he
never left her unprotected, lest she should be seized, carried
off, and devoured.

While we look with disgust on many of the customs of

* 'The 'Narrinyeri,' by the Rev. George Taplin, missionary to the
Aborigiues, Adelaide, 1874.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 115

the natives, some of them loathsome to the last degree, it
must not be supposed that they herd together like wild
beasts. They live under the rule of their " ruspulle," or
chief, and of the elders, and are a law-abiding people.
These tribes are strictly prohibited from using any but
the native weapons in a battle between themselves — a
rule Mr. Taplin never knew infringed. Another law
requires that an unfair wound shall be punished, and
even the chief men submit to this provision. On one
occasion a man came to Mr. Taplin with his upper lip
literally almost bitten off. While dressing it the Super-
intendent inquired how he had received the wound, and
learnt that he had, in a fight, attacked a native named
Captain Jack, a man of great consequence in the tribe
who, being unarmed, had seized his assailant with his teeth
and inflicted on him this terrible injury. Next day, Mr.
Taplin, meeting Captain Jack, remonstrated with him on
his conduct, when he replied, " Taplin, don't you talk, I
have just had four blows with a waddy on my head for it."

" The term dialect," says Dr. Moorhouse, " is scarcely
applicable to the languages of New Holland. They differ
in root more than the English, French, and German lan-
guages, differ from each other; and if natives of one
language happen to meet those of another, they are obliged
to converse in English to make themselves understood.*"

The language of the Narrinyeri, though not containing
a large number of words, may yet be termed, in one sense,
copious ; it is rich in synonyms, and very capable of in-
flections. It possesses declensions, including all the Latin
cases with some of its own — both in nouns and pronouns.
These have the dual as well as the plural number.

The relationships between members of the same family
are very curious. The children of a man's brother are
his children, while those of his sister are his nephews and
nieces. The offspring of a woman's sister are her children,

* A Vocabulary, and Outline of the Grammatical Structure of the
Murray River Language; by M. Moorhouse, Protector of the Aborigines,
Adelaide. 1816.

i 2

116 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

while those of her brother are her nephews and nieces.
Marriages never take place between individuals of the same
tribe, as they are all regarded as relations. The Narrin-
yeri are extremely particular that kinsfolk shall not wed ;
even second cousins they consider too near akin in blood.
A woman is in the gift of her father or brother, gene-
rally the latter, who exchanges her for a wife provided
by his sister's suitor. A man who has a woman in his
gift, and does not require a wife, will sell his right to
another for money, clothes, or weapons. The woman of
course is not allowed a choice ; indeed, the marriage is
often arranged without either party having seen the
other. Still it is considered desirable that she should
agree to it, perhaps, to give some colour to the pretensions
of the suitor, who always maintains that he marries a
damsel because she is very desirous to have him. A
woman signifies her consent to her marriage by carry-
ing burning wood to her husband's wurley, and lighting
his fire for him. An unwilling wife will say, when she
desires to express that she has been forced into mar-
riage, " I never made fire in his wurley." The Narrinyeri
are polygamists, but do not always avail themselves of this
privilege. Where there are more than one wife, as might
be expected, they quarrel among themselves. The hus-
band regarding his wives as his slaves employs them as
much as he can for his own advantage. Animal food he
procures himself, but roots, shell-fish, and edible plants
they are compelled to provide for him. The following
passage illustrates the position of women among them not
many years ago : — " The natives told me that some twenty
years before I came to Point Macleay they first saw white
men on horseback, and thought the horses were their
visitors' mothers, because they carried them on their
backs! I have also heard that another tribe regarded
the first pack-bullocks they saw as the white-fellows'
wives, because they carried the luggage ! " * Notwith-

* 'The Narrinyeri,' p. 53.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 117

standing these customs, Mr. Taplin tells us that when a
young man and woman entertain a liking for each other
they generally contrive to marry ; and that he has known
as well-matched and loving couples among the aborigines
as among whites.

Infanticide was so prevalent among the Narrinyeri
before the arrival of the English, that it is said more than
half the newly-born children were killed. An intelligent
native woman told Mr. Taplin that if the foreigners had
postponed their arrival a few years longer, they would
have found the continent without inhabitants. A child
was put to death (and in a very cruel manner) when
born before its predecessor could walk, as mothers were
considered incapable of carrying more than one infant
at a time. When twins were born one invariably was
destroyed, often both were killed ; and no deformed child
was permitted to live. Many of the infant half-castes
were sacrificed to the jealousy of their mothers' hus-
bands, and many illegitimate children were also mur-
dered. If, however, it was determined that the child
should live, it was treated with the greatest care. Men
would most tenderly nurse their offspring for hours,
when the mother was either absent or ill ; and parents
were plunged in grief at the death of their children.
Infanticide happily has much decreased though it
is not yet extinct. Mr. Taplin found that to allow a
mother a ration of flour, tea, and milk for twelve months
after her baby was born, acted most powerfully in
jutting an end to this deplorable practice at Point

The Narrinyeri think that no persons die naturally;
but that illness and death are always the result of sorcery,
in which they have a profound belief. Poisoning, by the
insertion of putrid matter taken from a corpse, is a not
uncommon mode of revenge among these tribes.

Mr. Taplin established himself at Point Macleay, in
October 1859, beginning his operations by visiting the
natives, making himself acquainted with their habits and
feelings, and meanwhile studying their language. He at

118 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

once introduced worship on Sunday, at which the atten-
dance was crowded, the congregation listening to him
with lively interest. Indeed, so deep was their love for
the service, that during the first part of Mr. Taplin's
ministry, when on one Sunday he was unavoidably absent,
his wife was compelled to conduct it, though on scriptural
grounds she hesitated to do so. " One week I had to be
away from the station, and I left my wife and children
and the servant-girl at home. On Saturday down came
the blacks, and asked Mrs. Taplin — ' I say, missis, what
we do long a Sunday, no have 'em chapel ? ' After some
talk she told them to come down at the usual time, in-
tending to have a sort of Sunday-school instead of worship.
The hour arrived, and, to her dismay, a perfect crowd
assembled — old grey-headed warriors and young men,
women, and children ; they quite filled the room. There
was no help for it, Sunday-school was out of the question,
so my dear partner stood up behind the table and gave
out a simple hymn and pitched the tune. This concluded,
she read the Scriptures and offered prayer, then gave out
another hymn. Now came the crisis; what was to be
done ? It was soon decided. She took a volume of ' Line
upon Line,' selected a chapter, and made it the foundation
of an address upon the subject contained therein, and kept
their attention the usual time ; then again sang a hymn
and offered prayer; and dismissed the people. The
natives said afterwards, " My word missis, you very good
minister."* The ignorance and superstition Mr. Taplin
encountered were difficult to overcome. The young,
however, received his teaching more readily than the old,
and when some of the youths were willing to work, he
found occupation for them in fencing the land ; but at
first the older people resented this so strongly that they
beat the labourers most cruelly, and compelled them to
stop saying that the young men would become too much
like white fellows. This opposition to the adoption of

' The Narrinyeri,' p. 58.

WE AT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 119

civilised habits has greatly diminished, though it still
exists in some degree.

A school for the children was opened as soon as a
building had been erected for that purpose, in which they
were fed as well as taught. " Never," says Mr. Taplin,
" was a wilder lot of pupils," — noisy and ravenous, active
as monkeys, and without a notion of what cleanliness
meant. But they were good-tempered and eager to learn,
and time and patience produced their usual effects. They
were much interested in hearing the Scriptures read, and
their reverence for the Bible has been permanent. One
lad, who died after a few days' illness, uttered a very
pathetic prayer in English just before breathing his last.
The old men, however, for a time visited departure from
the customs of their tribe, whether caused by a sense of
duty, or merely because no longer deemed necessary, with
secret assassination.

The Narrinyeri are much addicted to fighting. After
a death there is often a battle, as the deceased must be
avenged before his spirit is appeased; and these people
seem to entertain great fear of offending the dead. As
death is always held to be caused by an enemy, when he
belongs to a different tribe, a fight takes place between
the two. If real animosity exists it will be a serious
affair, but if the dead man has only to be avenged, after
a little spear-throwing the combatants separate. But
when quarrels arise from other causes the battles are
very sanguinary — at least in the exchange of dangerous
and disabling wounds, few men being actually killed in
this kind of warfare. Happily these hostilities are said
to have fallen into disuse.

In 1865 Mr. Taplin began systematically to employ the
natives in cultivating the land. Some work they had
already accomplished, but only to a limited extent ; and
if they were to remain at the mission it was necessary to
devise regular occupation for them. The Government
granted a lease of 730 acres to the Institution, where
farming operations have ever since been carried on with
very fair success.

120 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

The Christian natives desired better dwelling-places
than their wurleys, where their property was insecure,
and where they could never enjoy any privacy. Two
of the most civilized, James Unaipon and John Lae-
linyeri, were the first to build a small thatched cottage
•with their savings. From this beginning, the natives
being aided by a friend to the institution in Scotland,
arose the pretty cottages we saw from the lake. Besides
these dwellings a chapel, costing 148Z., towards which
some of the natives contributed 30/., has been also
erected.

Continuing our voyage, we reached Milang, our port
of debarkation, at dusk, and found the omnibus awaiting
the arrival of the steamer. When the mails had been
transferred, the lower part of the carriage was so much
filled up with large packages containing the last issue of
the * Australasian ' — a Melbourne weekly paper, resem-
bling the ' Illustrated London News ' — that we could
scarcely find room for our feet. These papers were
coming, of course, for sale in South Australia. We were
surprised to find that the demand could be so great, the
South Australian press itself being very prolific. There
are two daily newspapers in Adelaide, the ' Advertiser '
und the ' Register,' each publishing a second, or evening
edition. One monthly and seven weekly newspapers, of
which one is printed in the German language, appear
also at Adelaide. In the provinces several are published
either once or twice a week; one of these is also in
German.

The omnibus conveyed us twelve miles to Strathalbyn,
our sleeping-place for the night. Next morning we started
by starlight, and again in the mail, for Adelaide. As the
sun rose, we could discern that the trees and grass were
covered with hoar frost, the air being very cold. The
frost, however, gradually disappeared as we descended the
hills; and by ten o'clock, when we reached the plains,
the temperature resembled that of a summer morning at
home.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. ' 121

CHAPTEE VII.

Private Theatricals — Dramatic Readings — A Ball — Ministerial "crisis"

— Immigration — A trip in the country — Morphett Vale — Noarlunga

— Willunga — Australian inns — Drinking habits — High wages —
Aldinga — Norman's victory — Sellick's Hill — Native trees and flowers
— Yankalilla— Port Victor — Port Elliot — The Goolwa — The Murray
mouth — Currency Creek — The Meadows — Clarendon — Floods.

THE evening after our return we were present at admirably
performed private theatricals, quite equal to any we have
witnessed at home. Another entertainment, which we
shared more than once, almost equalled acting in result,
with much less trouble in preparation. It consisted in
reading a drama, each character being taken (if the num-
ber of readers sufficed) by a different person ; but instead
of all remaining present throughout and seated at a
table, the arrangement we had been familiar with on such
occasions at home, they made their entrances and exits, as
they would have done had they acted their parts. A very
few " properties " also were employed. These slight ad-
ditions to a simple reading of the play gave an amount
of histrionic effect far beyond anything we had anticipated.
The first ball we "assisted" at in the colony, took place
the next night. The winter gaieties began later than usual
this season, \ve were told, being delayed for the arrival of
the new Governor and his family. The present festivity
was at the house of the leader of former ministries, and
proved to be quite a political gathering, as well as an
elegant entertain ment. Soon afterwards it became known
that a ministerial " crisis " was at hand upon Immigration,
a subject of intense interest just then in the colony. The
farmers anticipating a harvest as abundant as the last,
wanted labourers to be sent for from England to gather

122 WE A T WE SAW IN A USTEALIA.

it in, while some other classes disputed the need for any
such accessions to the labour market. Immigration, how-
ever, carried the day — Sir Henry Ayers went out, and the
Hon. Arthur Blyth came in.

The day after the ball we started for another short
excursion into the country. There had been much discus-
sion which way we should bend our steps. We wished to
see more of the Murray, and were told a pleasant little
tour might be made by driving to Swanport on that river,
and there engaging a small steamer to take us up to
Mannum. We should thus, in two days, see a pretty
and characteristic part of the Murray which is remarkable
for its numerous reaches, and the sharpness of its bends ;
the stream sometimes turning so rapidly as to flow in
almost the opposite direction to that it had previously
taken.

But it was the heart of winter ; the roads would . pro-
bably be bad, resting-places were few and far between, and
at some of them the accommodotion might prove very
rough. So we chose a more frequented track. The one we
selected, indeed, was through what may be considered the
tourist district of South Australia, and is a favourite
honey-moon route.

Our party consisted of four — three ladies and a gentle-
man. C • lent us a buggy, and we hired a pair of

horses which did their week's work excellently. It was
about one o'clock, on the 26th June, when we started,
under a sun and sky recalling by their brilliancy those of
Italy or Spain, but — as indeed often happens there also —
accompanied by a sharp wind. Thus though umbrellas
were needed for shade, warm wraps were equally accept-
able, since out of the sunshine the air was as cold as on a
winter's day in England.

The southern suburb by which we were leaving Adelaide
was new to us. Pretty little houses extend fur some dis-
tance out of town, standing in gardens with vines growing
on trellises, and an abundance of almond-trees. These
were already coming into blossom at an unusually early
season. Our horses trotted cheerily along the well-metalled

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 123

level road, keeping up nine miles an hour without the least
effort. Driving southwards we crossed the little river
Sturt, so named by its discoverer Captain Barker, after his
friend and fellow-explorer; and leaving Glenelg on our
right, our route lay along the plain, some miles wide, which
extends from the Mount Lofty Kange to the sea, diversified
only when a low spur of the hills runs down to the coast.
Surmounting one of these by a slight ascent we reached
the township of Reynella, whence we overlooked Morphett
Vale, one of the earliest settled districts. We stopped to
rest the horses at tNoarlunga, a singularly pretty little
township, nestling in a hollow on a sharp bend of the
Onkaparinga near to its embouchure in the sea, here a full
quiet stream, perhaps fifteen or twenty yards across. For
a short ^distance it is completely overarched by gum-trees,
which repeat themselves in the placid water at their feet.
There is an easy ford for vehicles, and for foot-passengers
a very picturesque " spring bridge," half hidden among
the trees and well deserving its name, for, as we walked
across it, it rose and fell with a vivacity distressing to
weak heads. It was only two or three planks broad, and
perhaps sixty yards long, suspended high above the river
by wire ropes fixed partly to posts, partly to a gum-tree.

The inn was clean but homely. All the bedrooms were
built separate from the house across the yard, the door of
each opening on to a verandah. The landlady explained
that this was an old-fashioned arrangement, the inn
having been built in " ancient times." At this we laughed
saying we could not imagine ancient times in South
Australia. " Oh I can," she rejoined, "for I came here
thirty years ago in Governor Gawler's time."

A long climb from Noarlunga brought us to an open
country like the Wiltshire Downs, whence we watched the
sun drop into St. Vincent's Gulf. A brilliant after-glow
followed his disappeance, and then the air became bitterly
cold, so that we were right glad to reach Willunga, our
destination for the night. As this is a favourite stopping
place we had written beforehand to order rooms, and were
dismayed to perceive no signs of expectation when we

124 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

drew up at the door. " Had not a letter been received ?"
" No." " Could we have rooms ?" " Well I don't know—
we'll see." We were, however, admitted to the public
sitting-room, while this point was ascertained, and thankfully
warmed ourselves at its bright fire, from which some earlier
arrivals good-naturedly withdrew. Bedrooms were found,
and the usual Australian evening meal, a meat tea, was
quickly served. Our landlady who had received us with
chilling indifference was becoming more genial. Half-an-
hour afterwards she entered the room with a brisk step
and an open letter in her hand. It was our missive, only
just delivered ; we were now warm friends, and she was in
despair because her best rooms had been taken before we
arrived.

Cleanliness, and wholesome though very plain fare, may
be reckoned upon in the country inns of South Australia.
The general sitting-room is almost always supplied with a
piano, and with books including often some standard works.
In the bedrooms will be found brush and comb, and large
slippers, and we have found tooth as well as shaving-brush.
Such provision led us to suppose that the majority of South
Australian travellers are of the male sex, and not accus-
tomed to carry much luggage. We were told that at
bush stations a clean shirt is hospitably provided for the
traveller, who leaves his own in its place — thus, in course
of time, the stock becomes very miscellaneous, displaying
a charming variety in shape, size, and colour.

We woke next morning to find the air inexpressibly balmy.
The sky was as clear as the day before, but the wind had
gone round to the north. The latter was a bad sign, but
we were not Australian weather-wise enough to know it, and
so enjoyed the warmth without foreboding of evil to come.
Kemarkably fine gum-trees, and well-built houses are the
prominent features of Willunga, which stands amid pretty
rural scenery, and commands a view of the sea about five
miles distant. We had intended to be early on our road,
but Australian servants are independent, and the ostler
chose to take his own slow course, further retarded by
frequent " nobblers " bestowed upon him by other depart-

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 125

ing travellers. There was a group of six saddle-horses
" hitched " at the door, waiting for their riders who were
drinking in the bar. That drinking is no rare vice in
Australia, and by no means confined to the lower classes
is, we fear, but too true. We were assured, however, that
it does not exist there to a greater extent than at home,
but is conspicuous in a scanty population where every
individual is more or less generally known. We were,
moreover, told, in all the colonies we visited, that as a rule
the native-born are temperate. The drinkers, still more
the drunkards, are found among the immigrants. The
reasons are not far to seek — wages much above what they
have been accustomed to ; distance from those whose good
opinion they value ; a climate which at first seems more
exhausting than that they have left, and the effect of
which they mistakenly suppose alcohol will counteract ;
the heavy toil and long hours of labour and lack of many
of the ordinary comforts of life, which those engaged in
station work have to endure ; and, lastly, the cheapness
in a wine-growing country of the coarse strong spirit dis-
tilled from the refuse of the grape. But if indulgence in
drink is more patent in Australia than with us, so are its
disastrous consequences by contrast with what sobriety can
achieve. Wages are so high and food is so cheap that a
working man, if he does not drink, soon finds money
accumulating in his hands, and in a few years he has
capital at command. If he invest it in any business for
which the daily wants of mankind create a regular de-
mand, and is prudent in his dealings, he may rapidly
become even wealthy. There seem to be greater risks
in farming than in trade. This is partly owing to the
variableness of the climate which, indeed, has not been
under observation a sufficient number of years for its
qualities to be thoroughly understood ; and also to the
many perils to which different crops are liable — vicissitudes
which, no doubt, increased experience and more extended
operations will gradually moderate. But setting aside the
question of attaining wealth, and considering only that of
securing abundant comforts for the present and laying by

1 26 WHA T WE SA W IN A USTRALIA.

ample resources for old age, it is hardly possible, we were
assured, and our observations and inquiries confirmed the
assurance, for men and women accustomed to manual
labour who are, while young, industrious and frugal, to fail
in winning this meed of success. For brain-workers the
reward is less certain, and for inferior brain- workers — the
lower rank of clerks and governesses — there is small
chance of prosperity.

Happily the prominence attaching to the effects of drink
has awakened strong efforts in the cause of abstinence.
Teetotal Associations, Bands of Hope, and Good Templar-
ism, are at work in all directions, and seemed to be so
largely supported by the youthful portion of the popula-
tion that we gladly accepted the general dictum, full of
happy augury, that young Australia is sober.

When all our fellow-travellers had started on their
several ways, the fumbling old ostler recognised the fact
that no more " nobblers " impended, and proceeded to pre-
pare our horses. We need not, indeed, have awaited his
pleasure, as of course all Australian gentlemen (and not
few Australian ladies) can harness their steeds themselves,
but, that in his muddled state the night before, he had so
scattered the equipments that our cavalier could not find
them. At length, between ten and eleven, we set off, at
least an hour later than we had intended to start. Turning
aside a little from the main route we drove almost to the
shore, passing through the pretty little township of
Aldinga. Here we stopped to negotiate the purchase of
a basket from a singularly handsome half-caste girl —
combining the lustrous eyes and dazzling teeth of her
aboriginal descent, with the straight nose and thinner lips
of her white parent — who was walking along the road with
an old native woman, equally remarkable for her ugliness.
We objected to the price asked as too high, to which the
elder woman replied, by saying " tucker was very dear,"
tucker being food, in Australian slang.

Before crossing the Mount Lofty Eange by a fine pass
called Sellick's Hill, we stopped to dine and rest the horses
at an inn near its foot, named " Norman's Victory," to com-

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 127

mem orate Norman's success in getting a good piece of
road made — a triumph worthy of record as all Australian
travellers will agree. The inn was a fair specimen of an
Australian roadside hostelry. The door opened into a large
room, serving as salle- a -manger, but provided with four
large sofas or benches with mattresses upon them and a
rail at each end, evidently contrived a double debt to pay,
and serve on occasion as beds. A private sitting-room,
supplied with two similar sofas and otherwise nicely fur-
nished, opened from the larger apartments on one side,
and on the other a neat plain little bedroom, the only one
probably the house afforded for "quality." We could
hear billiard-balls clicking somewhere in the back regions.
A billiard-table is not uncommon in Australian inns, and
sometimes even there is a ball-room. The landlady at
Willnnga showed us a large one, in which she had seen,
she said, 200 people. " But there were seldom any balls
now," she added, " she believed the people had grown too
sanctimonious to dance."

At Norman's Victory our hostess lamented she had not
known we were coming, that she might have provided some-
thing better than the cold fowl, mutton chops, and potatoes
she gave us for dinner. There is a lagoon near, where she
said wild ducks could be got. The view we surveyed
through the open door, while we dined, was very pleasant.
We looked across cultivated land, dotted with comfortable
homesteads, to the sea, about two miles distant, and most
intensely blue, except where the sunlight made it glitter-
ing white. To the left the range of hills terminated in a
fine headland forming the southern horn of a bay where
we could distinguish the tiny port of Myponga.

We ascended Sellick's Hill by a well-metalled and well-
engineered road, and paused at the top to enjoy the views,
one down the striking pass behind us, the other looking
forward over an open undulating country, very finely
timbered. On the sides and summits of the gorge the
shea-oak prevails, with here and there a blackwood, —
a species of acacia, the wood of which takes a remark-
ably fine polish. We returned to the guui-trees as we

128 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

descended. Very few flowers were to be seen, but here
we first met with the native lilac (Hardeiibergia ovata)
growing wild. This graceful shrub, which is a great
favourite in gardens, bears a much closer resemblance to the
English lilac than do most of the Australian flowers to
their European namesakes. The leaf is very similar, and
so is the colour of the blossom in both varieties — the
white and the lilac — but it is a much smaller shrub. It
is, moreover, a climber, and its flowers, which are papil-
ionaceous, grow in slender sprays instead of bunches, and
are not unlike the vetch. In mentioning the flowers we
specially noticed in this trip, the arums must not be
omitted. These do not grow wild, but they abounded in
almost every garden. Their bloom is so luxuriant that
fifteen or twenty flowers and buds may be counted at
once in a single clump ; it was beginning now, and con-
tinued with this abundance for several mouths. At a ball
at which we were present, in October, among the beautiful
floral decorations arums were used in profusion.

The remainder of our drive was through park-like
scenery, backed by lofty wooded hills — emerald green
while in sunshine, purple in shadow, and of a rich crimson
at sunset. We saw few houses and hardly any people
after leaving Norman's Victory, yet the road was good
almost the whole distance to Yankalilla, where we slept.
The land on either side is enclosed, and much of it is
cultivated; and we must have passed between at least
thirty miles of substantial fencing. The more we see of
the colony the more are we astonished at the amount of
work achieved.

Yankalilla lies in a broad valley, with roads forking in
two or three directions from the main one. There are a
few rows of detached houses scattered over a large area,
surrounded by gardens and enclosures through which
their lights twinkled cheerily as we drove at dusk into
the town. The hotel is comfortable, and the landlord
and his staff were very kind and attentive. This, too, is
characteristic of Australian inns, though there are excep-
tions. Usually, however, you are treated rather as a

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 129

friend than a customer. Often the host or hostess pre-
sides at the table d'hote (a frequent institution), and leads
the conversation. The hotel at Yankalilla, however,
was evidently accustomed to guests who prefer privacy,
and we were served accordingly.

The following morning we learnt the evil of a north
wind in winter. We had gone to bed without, to our
eyes, a sign of change in the bright, glorious weather ; we
got up to find a soaked and dripping world. It rained
too heavily for us to go out until afternoon, when we had
a short drive to Normansville, a little port with a new
jetty, to replace an old one battered and broken by waves
driven against it by south-west gales. A tramway runs
along the jetty from some rough little warehouses, where
wattle-baric — the chief article of commerce at Normans-
ville, was stacked ; part of it packed in bags made of
matting, part not packed at all. It is exported to
England to be used in tanning. The grower gets 21. a
ton, but it costs 10Z. to the English purchaser by the time
it is delivered.

The coast is very fine, bordered by lofty hills, half a
mile from the sea in some places, in others running down
to the shore in bold promontories. As a heavy shower
swept up from the south these points were partially
veiled in mist — a beautiful effect, which, with the con-
formation of the cliffs, recalled the coast of County
Wick low to mind.

Next morning was dry, and the sun showed himself
occasionally. We drove southwards to Second Valley,
following the coast we had seen the previous day for a few
miles, and then turning inland by a picturesque pass
through the hills. We now found ourselves in a fertile
district, with little groups of farm buildings showing here
and there. Hills still bounded the landscape. The land
was partly pasture, beautifully wooded, but was mostly
under the plough, with the young wheat-crop already
showing in some places. WTe saw in a large field a flock
of fifty or sixty white cockatoos pursuing their favourite
occupation of picking out the seed, but, like rooks, with

K

130 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

sentinels mounted to signal approaching danger. As we
drew nigh they rose and flew to a little distance, where
they settled on a small dead gum-tree and nearly covered
it, looking like such a group in a mediaeval picture, the
birds out of all proportion to the tree. When they con-
sidered us at a safe distance they returned to their depre-
dations. During the day we saw several such flocks,
glistening in the sunshine as they flew. They are a
terrible nuisance to the farmer. Of the black cockatoos,
which are very good to eat, during all our travels we came
upon only one or two at a time, and those very rarely,
though in some localities they are numerous.

The houses in Second Valley, or Finnis Yale, as it is
also called, are collected in a cheerful-looking hamlet, a
mile and a half from the sea, where upon a little bay is a
minute harbour like that of Normansville, with jetty,
tramway, and wattle-bark complete. Much corn is also
dispatched from it. We drove as near to the beach as we
could, and, having loosened the horses from the buggy
and fastened them to a convenient fence, we had a long
stroll among the rocks and huge boulders on the shore.
All our wraps were left in the carriage, from which we
were absent about an hour, but there was no risk of their
being stolen. On the beach we found sponges of different
kinds and forms, and even colours, for some of a small
variety were of a beautiful crimson ; and pretty little
coralines and seaweeds, but scarcely any shells. The
mesembryanthemum hung down over the rocks, its mauve-
coloured blossoms peeping out here and there. These
rocks presented in some parts a remarkable appearance,
looking like masses of gum-tree trunks. They had been
quarried for material for the jetty ; and some of the
blocks forming that structure it was impossible to believe
were not of timber, without ascertaining by the touch that
they had the coldness of stone.

Dinner, ordered as we passed the "hotel," was ready on
our return. We were waited upon by our host's daughter
in her Sunday attire — a silk dress and gold ornaments,
and a bunch of roses in her hair; but the dress was turned

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 131

up and well protected by a large coarse apron. Her father
presided at the head of the table. Speaking of the
wheat-producing capabilities of the neighbourhood, we men-
tioned that at Willunga we had heard of twenty -five bushels
to the acre. He told us that here some land had produced
thirty-five bushels, and that the average yield last harvest
was seventeen or eighteen. The average for the whole
colony last year, which was unusually prolific, was between
nine and ten bushels. He spoke also of a stud-farm in
the neighbourhood, where horses are bred of such high
quality, that two-year-old fillies sell for 500?. Australian
horses are a regular article of export to India, where, for
the army or from private purchasers, high prices can be
obtained.

We had intended prolonging our drive some miles
further beyond the little mining-town of Talisker to a point
near Cape Jervis, whence the view is said to be magni-
ficent ; but we learnt the roads were so bad that there was
risk of our being benighted, and we resolved to return at
once to Yankalilla. •

Although we had but twenty miles to accomplish next
day, the accounts given us of the roads showed the journey
would be a tedious one, as it proved : for, starting at nine,
and giving the horses only a moderate bait, we did not
reach our stopping-place till nearly four. Much of the
country we traversed was scrub, and here the soil was
sandy, and most toilsome for the horses to wade through ;
but when pursuing our difficult way across the Bald
Hills, a district as unpicturesque as its name imports, we
were nearly stuck in what looked like black clay, and all
but our charioteer had to get out of the buggy to enable
the horses to drag it through. Where the land had been
under cultivation it seemed to have been in a great degree
exhausted.

At the little inn where we rested, the landlady, who,
like our acquaintance at Noarlunga, dated from " Governor
Gawler's time " — apparently a Hegira for South Austra-
lians— spoke somewhat enviously of neighbours who were
able to leave, and were removing to the new agricultural

K 2

1 32 WE A T WE SA W IN A US TPALIA .

areas recently thrown open to selection one and two
hundred miles north of Adelaide.

Having attained a considerable elevation, and crossed
the ridge of hills near and among which we had been
driving since we left Adelaide, a grand view opened
before us — of richly-timbered hill and valley, of rocky
coast off which lay Granite Island, and beyond, of the
great Southern Ocean. A long descent by a broad zig-zag
road led to Victor Harbour. Before reaching the town
we crossed the Inman, close to what would be its mouth if
it had one. Although a small stream it is a characteristic
example of an Australian river. There would have been
something even ludicrous in its incapacity to find its way
to the sea, but that this incapacity in ship-bearing rivers
is one of the most serious obstacles to the prosperity of
the continent. The Inman had turned and twisted as
though it were resolved to overcome all impediments, and
yet here, though but a hundred yards or so from the
beach, it succumbed to opposition, and lost itself in the
sand which had apparently, by silting, barred its exit.

Victor Harbour, a portion of Encounter Bay, was early
settled, with the expectation that it would be useful as a
port. Corn and wool are embarked here, but its com-
merce is not extensive,'although the position is favourable.
The harbour, however, needs much improvement, and the
construction of a breakwater is one of several important
public works for the accomplishment of whicli a Bill has
lately been brought into the South Australian Parliament.
A horse-tramway for goods and passenger traffic connects
Victor Harbour with Port Elliot and Middleton on the
coast, with the Murray at Goolwa, and with Strathalbyn
about twenty-five miles inland. The little town aspires to
rival Port Elliot, a few miles distant, as a watering-place.
It has connected itself by a bridge with Granite Island,
where the water is deeper than elsewhere, and quays are,
it is said, to be constructed ; but at present the bridge
seems of little use except as an agreeable promenade, and
is no doubt, therefore, an attraction to visitors seeking
health or pleasure. We availed ourselves of it to reach

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRA LI A. 1 33

the island, which is a huge rabbit-warren. No trees grow
upon it ; but it affords pasturage for a few sheep. The
action of the waves has scooped out caverns on the side
exposed to the sea, some of them so far above the high-
water line, as to impress one forcibly with the mighty
power of breakers which thus, by merely exceptional
efforts, so to speak, wear granite away.

The morning of the next day was spent in a charming
ramble and picnic on the beach, arranged for us by friends
of our fellow-travellers who, living in the neighbourhood,
and hearing of our arrival, would not allow strangers to
depart without in some way promoting their pleasure.
We dined and slept at Port Elliot, the future Brighton,
probably, of South Australia, but possessing a far grander
coast. The great waves rolling in, when a southerly
wind blows, are said to be magnificent, and though com-
paratively tame to-day, were well worth a scramble in the
fresh morning air for good points of view over the huge
rocks which line the shore. In hollows of the cliffs were
several wurleys, and as we wanted some more mats and
baskets of native manufacture, and had been advised to get

them at Port Elliot, E visited these abodes, hoping

to obtain some ; but all their occupants were absent — not
one was to be seen.

Having a long day's journey before us we started
betimes; our road skirting Middleton Beach, rich in
shells, and a plain covered with scrub, among which we
found fine specimens of the scarlet bottle-brush, with
blossoms four inches long and perhaps ten or twelve in cir-
cumference. Five or six miles brought us to Goolwa, a
town of great expectations, with quays and large ware-
houses and at least one ship-building yard, spreading
over a large area, the blank spaces in which bid fair to be
soon occupied.

The ' A 1 bury,' a steamer which goes up the Murray as
far as the town of its own name in New South Wales,
was lying alongside one of the quays. We invited our-
selves on board to go over it. Albury is distant from
Goolvva some 450 miles as the crow flies, and about 1200

134 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

following the direct course of the river ; but the stream
doubles so constantly, that the distance actually travelled
upon it amounts, we understood, to 3000 miles. The
voyage up occupies three weeks; and having seen how
comfortably three or four passengers might be lodged
on the steamboat, we regretted our disposable time did
not permit of our penetrating the continent in this easy
manner. At Goolwa we inquired again for native mats
and baskets, but found we could only leave our order
for them with an obliging agent, who told us that all
the aborigines of the neighbourhood were busy picking
native currants. This accounted for the empty wurleys
at Port Elliot. The fruit, which grows upon a very
small shrub, coming in the winter, is acceptable to the
whites as well as to the blacks, who find a good sale for
it. Some was given to us. The berries are about the
size of our red-currants, but are of a darker and duller
hue. Their flavour is acid and rough, and they are not,
therefore, pleasant when uncooked, but they make an
agreeable preserve.

We had reckoned upon a dinner at Currency Creek (a
name, by-the-bye, which always brought to mind the City
article in the ' Times '), but on arriving at the inn we
found it closed. This was a township consisting of hardly
more than two or three houses; fortunately one was a
farm, where our horses were good-naturedly received and
fed. Another was a store of imposing appearance, but
where the only provisions we could find were a tin of pre-
served salmon and a loaf. These we carried to a pretty
spot upon the creek, and by good appetites made up for
variety in our repast. The neighbourhood is pleasant,
and the inn, a large one, had been a favourite resort with
tourists ; but it had fallen into bad hands, and had
acquired so disreputable a character that the licence had
been withdrawn. The delay caused by having to seek a
substitute for the accommodation it would have afforded
made us late in starting again. We had failed to obtain
accurate information concerning the road we had to travel,
and losing our way, lost also our time. The sky, too,

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA. 1 35

bright until the afternoon, then clouded, and soon the
rain came down heavily. Led to hope, by the information
of those we had inquired of respecting our route, in the
early part of our drive, that we should reach shelter
before dark, we had now to learn that many miles still lay
before us. Each person interrogated made the distance
somewhat longer than the previous one had done : and
a little knot of men, almost invisible in the increasing
gloom, added to our dismay by an ominous warning to
beware of " the big hole in the road a mile or so
ahead." Whether the big hole were a figment of their
imagination, or whether it was by a happy chance we
passed it unscathed, it was too dark for us to discover.
All we knew was that we did not fall into it. But for
the extreme good-nature of Australians, we might have
suspected it was an invention to procure a laugh at our
expense.

It was very long after dark before we reached our desti-
nation, The Meadows, a scattered hamlet, with a country
inn which we had been told was good. The landlord
seemed wholly occupied with his customers in the bar, the
mistress was ill in bed, and the only person who paid us
any attention was a friend who had come from a distance
to nurse her. But for this good woman, our only unfavour-
able experience of an Australian country inn would have
been much worse than it was. Soon a fire was blazing
where we could dry ourselves and our wraps ; and before
long tea and the never-failing chops were before us.

The roads next morning across the flat country we had
to traverse were in some places under water, and heavy
showers continued to fall during the day. We were due
at home that evening, and the latter part of our drive led
us across a portion of the Mount Lofty Range, new to us,
but equally lovely with what we had seen before. Our
road brought us through Clarendon, and above Coro-
mandel Valley, where a large factory, using South Aus-
tralian flour, produces the most delicious biscuits it has
ever been our good fortune to eat. We passed also the
Government Farm. This is a small estate upon the hills,

136 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

which affords a retreat from the heat of Government
House in summer. The accommodation, however, is not
sufficient for the family and suite, and while we were in
South Australia the erection of a suitable mansion on
Mount Lofty was under consideration.

The drive down the long zigzag road to the Adelaide
plains by Unley, passing Torrens Park, the pretty seat
of Sir Robert Torrens, would have been charming in fine
weather, but the blinding rain permitted us to see little of
it. Next day we knew how fortunate we had been in
suffering no other evil consequence than loss of scenery.
Twenty-four hours later we should have found portions of
our route impassable. The rain we had encountered was the
precursor of destructive floods, in which trees were torn up,
bridges broken down, and roads washed away. The creek
at Hazelwood rose higher than it had been known for
twenty years, converting a portion of the garden into a
small lake. The next morning a charwoman, who was ex-
pected at the house, was seen making despairing signals
from the further side of the foot-bridge in the meadow,
under which the stream usually flowed some feet beneath,
but which was now covered with water ; and on the same
evening a seamstress could not return to her home,
two hundred yards from the lodge gate, the flooding of
the creek having made the road impassable. The ruin
to gardens in Waterfall gully, through which this stream
had held its riotous way, was for many weeks a piteous
sight.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 137*

CHAPTEK VIII.

Magill School — Destitute Asylum — Girls' Reformatory — Boarding-out.

SEVERAL years ago there was a sudden need, at Adelaide,
of lodgings for soldiers. To supply it the children in the
Destitute Asylum were summarily ejected from their
quarters, which were converted into barracks. Naturally
there was little choice of buildings to which they could be
transferred in such hot haste, and the place selected was,
in many respects, unfit for their reception. Disease soon
broke out among them, including a violent attack of
ophthalmia. This had the one happy effect of attracting
attention to their sad state which, to the honour of Soutli
Australians be it said, was no sooner generally known than
the public voice demanded proper accommodation should
be provided for them. No money was to be spared — a
site was obtained at Magill, a healthy and beautiful spot,
and a palatial edifice was erected, bearing comparison in
all respects, cost included, with the most showy of our
English pauper schools ; and a similar system of treatment
was established to that pursued at home. The results were
not so satisfactory as had been expected, and in course of
years accommodation for more children being required,
the Destitute Board decided early in 1872, instead of
building, to adopt Boarding out.* This plan had already

* The following anecdote will illustrate the lack of training in every-
day duties which children, when dealt with wholesale, may suffer from,
though the instance cited is, doubtless, an extreme one, and the abuse it
revealed was long since, in great degree, reformed. A lady visiting the
department formerly allotted to the children in the Destitute Asylum,
iound them preparing, or rather being prepared, to go out for a day's
holiday. To her surprise, she saw great boys being passed under a hair
brush one after another, the woman who applied it dealing with them aa

138 WHA T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA.

been for some time under trial in South Australia, on a

very limited scale. E , who had taken much interest

in the children at Magill, and deplored the pauper charac-
teristics developing themselves among them, happened
to meet with an account of the boarding-out of children
from the city parish of Edinburgh, under the direction
of Mr. George Greig, and impressed with the soundness
of the principle on which the plan is based — that, namely,
of restoring the child to the conditions of family life in
a well-ordered cottage home — she obtained permission
to try it with one or two children in her own neigh-
bourhood. A few more were subsequently taken out
by two or three other ladies and gentlemen. The satis-
factory issue of the experiment encouraged a more general
adoption of the system, and the Chairman of the Destitute
Board, having satisfied himself of its applicability to the
circumstances of anew country, devoted himself personally
to its extension throughout the colony, and with such
benevolent and unwearied zeal, that he may be said to
have identified himself with its success. He based the
rules for the administration of the system, on the " Poor-

though they and it had been parts of a machine. " Cannot the elder ones
brush their own hair ? " was the natural inquiry. " No," answered the
attendant, " they can do nothing for themselves ; we have to wait upon
them haud and foot; none of them can put on any of their clothes."
Shocked at such a state of things, the visitor inquired about the girls, and
was told they were equally helpless. Hoping to find there was some
exaggeration in the statement, she went to an adjoining yard where
they were assembled ready to start, and offered a penny to any of them
who had put on their own hat and shoes. Although some of the girls
weie thirteen years of age, not one of the whole group could claim the
penny. No doubt the persons responsible for the tidy appearance of the
children found it less trouble to make their toilette for them than to
teach them to do it properly themselves ; and no one acquainted with
institutions in which children are massed together but is aware that the
same cause will be found operating in various ways to prevent their ac-
quiring alertness of brain and hand in the common affairs of life.

An additional illustration of these remarks reaches us from an institu-
tion at home. '' How often," says a late chaplain to the pauper schools
at Anerley, in reference to the training of girls by the officers, " have I
overheard the exclamation, ' I'd rather do it myself twice over than waste
my time trying to teach you.' " — Letter from the Rev. 0. J. Vignoles,
printed by Messrs. Spottiswoode, January, 1875.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 139

Law Board Order for boarding-out Pauper Children," of
November 1870, and minor details he adapted from
Colonel Grant's "Guide to the boarding- out System," and
"Children rescued from Pauperism," by Mr. William
Anderson. Of its working he kindly afforded us the op-
portunity of judging from our own observation — and we
also often came accidentally upon the children or their
kind supervisors ; so that, in a variety of ways, we
personally gathered information on the subject. But we
wished also to acquaint ourselves with the Magill School,
and paid it a visit on the 16th of July.

The large number of children, nearly 200, who had
been removed to cottage-homes or service within the
preceding eighteen months, had reduced those remaining
to fifty-four, and as the staff had been reduced in propor-
tion, the inmates now seemed a mere handful in the
great building. The rooms are large and airy, but diph-
theria and low fever used to prevail frequently, owing to
the deficiency of water and almost entire absence of
drainage. After an especially severe visitation these causes
were removed ; the health of the children has much im-
proved and, during the past four years, there have been
but four deaths from all causes among them. In com-
parison with pauper children at home most of the elder
ones looked fairly well and had generally bright open
countenances, but the " infants," as they are called, though
none are admitted under two and a half years old, were
in so unsatisfactory a condition that the matron, although
opposed to boarding-out generally, expressed her earnest
wish that these little things could have a foster-mother's
individual love and care.

The bedrooms were very clean and neat, and the day-
rooms gay with engravings and coloured prints which, in
some parts, quite concealed the walls. Strange to say
there is no garden, and in this land of fruit none, we un-
derstand, ever reaches the children, except as a gift from
outside ; but there is land attached to the school which the
boys help to cultivate, and the dairy is a profitable branch
of the establishment. The boys also share the housework

140 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

with the girls ; indeed, at the time of our visit, only two
of the latter were more than eleven years old. The
clothes (excepting shoes) are made at the school, but
in their manufacture, apparently, officers and machines
help a good deal.

The school classes had been much broken by the re-
moval of so many pupils, and a mistress who formerly was
assisted by four monitors now employs none. The quality
of the teaching suffers from the diminution of numbers,
but this is inevitable, considering that the remaining
children are of very various ages and degrees of education.
The school is little more now thanaliouse of reception for
children when they first become dependent on the State,
a shelter for the strictly casual, and a refuge for those who
may be called the refuse of pauperism — unfortunate beings
who are incapacitated by bodily or mental ailments
from earning their livelihood in the world and for whom
distinct asylums have not yet arisen in this new
country.

As a training school this institution must be regarded
as completely disorganized by the changes it has recently
undergone. It seemed to us that the best one could wish
ior all concerned was, that the remaining children fit for
boarding-out should be speedily transferred to cottage
homes; and that the rest should be removed to a house of
more moderate size, and more simple in its arrangements,
where a master and matron could train them in such
humble domestic and out-door occupations as would pre-
pare them for the laborious life every honest working man
and woman in the colony must lead, and exercise over
them the individual influence and supervision impossible
in their present location. The more home-like character
thus introduced would ameliorate the lot even of those so
much afflicted as to have no hope of future independence.
Such a remodelling of the school, indeed, would we under-
stood fulfil Mr. Reed's own wishes ; but there is the great
obstacle in his way, that no other use offers for the present
building, and it would have to stand empty, while the
{State incurred the cost of another. It is to be regretted

WFJA T WE SA W IN A USTRALTA. 141

that small houses were not originally erected, each as it was
wanted, instead of this mansion-like edifice. They would
probably have been easily let when no longer needed,
or, if this were undesirable, they could have been built at
so much less cost that to close the superfluous ones would
have entailed the loss of an almost insignificant sum as
compared with that sunk in the present building. Have
we never made similar mistakes at home, and may we
not yet take a useful warning from Magill School ?

A few, days after our visit to Magill we went over the
Destitute Asylum. The weather was so splendid that the
most dismal of our workhouses might have brightened under
its influence, but apart from that, the asylum looked to us
a cheerful place. It stands on North Terrace, in a line
with other Government buildings, including Government
House, and though not ornate in style, it is handsome and
somewhat too inviting in aspect, giving the beholder an
impression that a very comfortable life may be led inside.
The portion originally built for adults is two storeys high,
the rooms are large and lofty opening on verandahs com-
manding a pretty view, and affording a pleasant lounge for
the old people who were basking in the winter sunshine.

There was but one married couple at the time of our
visit. The sexes are divided, but there is 'a door of com-
munication between their respective sections of the build-
ing, and they mingle frequently in their occupations.
The quadrangle upon which the men's rooms open is
beautifully laid out as a garden, while that allotted to
the women is occupied as a drying ground, the surface
being left rough and ill paved and so dangerous for the
lame to walk upon that it was painful to watch a poor old
creature on crutches make her way across it. We asked
why the women might not have a garden too, and learnt
it was because, to keep it in order, men would have to
come into it.

The children's quarters have but a ground-floor, and the
rooms are inferior to the others — though here as else-
where all are boarded. They were converted to barracks
some years ago, as we have related, but are now occupied

142 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

by adult paupers, for barracks are no longer needed, the
colony possessing no army of its own and the imperial
regiments having been all withdrawn. South Australia,
indeed, does not contain a single soldier or even a volunteer,
and must we imagine be almost unique in that respect.
We should not omit to mention that it has, what we
always heard spoken of as a very effective police force,
both mounted and foot. The uniform of the former in-
cluding a bright blue garibaldi and silver trimmings,
their handsome and well-caparisoned horses, and the fine
bearing of the men, many of whom we heard were of
superior social position, gives them- a picturesque and
striking appearance.

A girl of fifteen or sixteen, who had been sent from
Magill because she had fits, and eight little things under
three years old, were the only children we found in the
asylum ; their condition was far from so neat and clean
as it should have been. It was favourably contrasted by
that of the other inmates, who seemed well and kindly
cared for. A few are convalescents, sent hither from the
hospital, which is likewise a Government institution ; the
State occasionally franks the cost of a higher class
of female convalescents at the Servants' Home for a few
weeks, to recruit.*

The representatives of the able-bodied class were happily
few, some women who were busily washing — and might
by such labour have earned a good living for themselves
outside could they have resisted the temptation to drink —
and the inmates of the lying-in ward. The more hopeful
cases among these are separated from the rest, and occupy
rooms which, though forming a part of the building, have
no communication with the rest of the asylum. There are
beds for eleven women ; seven were present on the day of
our visit. All was beautifully neat and clean, although
we arrived by ten o'clock in the morning, and were not

* Since we were in South Australia private charity has set on foot a
Convalescent Home, of which Mrs. Musgrave recently laid the foundation
•tone.

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA. 1 43

expected. The excellent matron, Mrs. Hunt, who takes a
deep interest in her charges, both while with her and
after they have departed, seemed to seize the right
moment to counsel and help them. They are allowed
to remain a month ; but at its expiration are not dis-
charged unless they have a respectable home to go to.
The greater number enter service, chiefly as wet-nurses ;
their infants being boarded-out, and the mothers paying
the cost. But in the Australian climate it is especially
difficult to preserve the life of an infant when removed
from its mother ; and the matron greatly objects to the
separation on this account. She finds it, however, difficult
without it to obtain employment for the women.

Some of the inmates of the asylum of all ages had
doubtless found a refuge there from inevitable misfortune,
but by far the larger number, it was sad to hear, had been
brought, directly or indirectly, by faults of their own —
drinking being the most common. We were struck by
the large proportion among the sick who were suffering
from paralysis. This disease is frequently brought on
by injuries resulting from the class of accidents common
in the bush ; but it is also caused by sleeping in the
sunshine, and this is often a consequence of drunkenness.
The danger of such exposure is well known, but a drunken
man incurs it unconsciously. There were many bushmen
among the inmates, wliich the warder accounted for by
telling us that when a bushman loses his wife he is
" floored " — by which it was given us to understand that
he lost heart, and took to drinking. It did not seem to
be within the warder's experience that the wife is " floored "
if she be bereft of her husband. On the contrary she
could generally get on pretty well alone : and thus may
be partly accounted for the creditable minority of the
female sex in the asylum. To 162 men there were only
69 women.

A large proportion of both sexes being infirm or bed-
ridden, there is not much employment attempted beyond
the housework and washing, and making some of the
clothes. A few men, however, were making rough can-

WHA T WE SAW IN A USTEALIA .

vas bags for ore, and shelling almonds for outside em-
ployers ; and in this way they earned something for the
institution and obtained a trifle for themselves. We
hoped it was permitted to accumulate, to form a fund
upon which to start in life again outside, but we learnt
it was left entirely at their own disposal, and was usually
spent in drink on the first holiday out — holidays occurring
once a fortnight. It was satisfactory to learn, that if a
holiday-maker returns drunk to the asylum he forfeits
his leave to go out on the next open day, and if he offends
a second time he is deprived of two successive holidays.
Such a regulation seems an obvious way of dealing with
this unfortunately too-common offence, yet we know
workhouses at home where it has never been adopted.

Several among the inmates of the asylum would have
been quite able to maintain themselves outside by their
labour could they have kept sober. It is an abuse of
charity, of course, that such persons should be supported
by it, and we should have rejoiced to find that the autho-
rities — not hampered, as we are at home, by a legal claim
to relief — made still greater efforts than they appear to
do to render this class of their dependents as nearly as
possible self-supporting. A pauper establishment in New
South Wales, which we shall hereafter describe, offers an
example in this respect worthy of study — not in the sister
colonies only, but also at home.

The dietary includes an abundance of meat daily, and
sometimes soup also. In the large convenient kitchen
we saw legs and shoulders of mutton being boiled and
roasted, besides a long array of chops preparing for.
invalids. Everyone has tea morning and evening ; and
arrowroot and other sick-room niceties are served if
ordered by the doctor — "and most of them get it," we
were told. There seemed a kindliness of tone and liber-
ality of treatment throughout the institution with which,
if the inmates had been simply victims of misfortune, one
could not too warmly sympathise ; the presence among
them, however, of a certain proportion brought there
simply by idleness and profligacy, greatly complicates the

'WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 145

question of their management; but it is a question de-
manding attention, if the colony would prevent the growth
of a pauper class in her midst.

The Girls' Reformatory for the colony is under the
superintendence of Mrs. Hunt, already mentioned, and its
inmates work in the laundry and kitchen in association
with women from that department of the lying-in ward
which she manages. This seemed an extraordinary and,
at first sight, most objectionable arrangement, but under
the excellent influence of the matron and her assistant it
is possible no harm accrues. The school can receive
twelve pupils ; there were seven present to-day. The
number being so small very few rules are necessary. The
little group resembles a family rather than a school, and
evidently are governed through their affections rather
than by strict regulations. They are individually treated,
and the character of each seemed as well known to their
kind guardian as if they had been her own children.
Their countenances were bright and happy.

The Inspector's Annual Report for 1872 speaks of re-
markable improvement in the school, and of its present
state as very satisfactory. The matron, however, is not
yet content with the results attained, and complained of
short sentences — some of the girls are sent for only six
months — and of the late age at which they often come.
Those we saw ranged, probably, from eight to thirteen.
Some have entered the school much older, and very
turbulent ; but the new comers of any age are apt to be
refractory, and their knowledge of evil seems scarcely less
distressing than that of their poor little sisters at home.

The children occupy one very large room, a quarter of
which, divided from the rest by a partition eight feet
high, forms a sufficiently light and airy apartment for
lessons and eating. The rest is the dormitory, containing a
little room within it for the sub-matron. All was clean, and
looked comfortable. The door opens on to a large court,
an acre, probably, in extent, where the girls play and
have a few flowers to cultivate. Walks beyond the walls
are a reward for good conduct. They rise at a quarter-

L

146 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

past six, and until six or seven at night the time is
divided between housework, sewing, eating, and lessons,
and a due amount of out-door exercise. Afterwards they
amuse themselves until bed-time at nine o'clock.

The amount of industrial work required seemed to us so
moderate, that we suggested some increase, lest transition
to service should be regarded as decidedly a change for
the worse. The girls are apprenticed as servants before
the expiry of their sentence. We saw one who had been thus
placed out but who had returned. She was a particularly
bright, pretty girl, with qualities, as described by the
matron, which would have made her a general favourite,
and a great " success " in society in our rank of life. It
seemed as though her attachment to the school had been
her bane. She had run away from service (far off in the
country), had gone of her own accord to a magistrate,
and had declared to him that she could not stay in her
place, and wanted to go back to school. He returned her
to it accordingly, her original sentence having yet some
months to run. The law permits of her being apprenticed
again before it expires ; and to save her from falling into
the hands of a bad mother this will probably be done, so
that she may yet turn out a good and happy woman. The
cost of this little institution is not separately stated in the
report, but the expenditure for the whole of the Destitute
Asylum in 1872 was slightly under 7s. a week per head,
or a total of 44857. for the year.*

The administration of out-relief throughout the colony
rests with the Destitute Board, assisted by auxiliary
Boards in a few of the larger country towns, and elsewhere
by the District Councils. These are local elective bodies,
created in 1852 by an Act of the South Australian Legis-
lature, at the instance of Sir Henry Young, then Governor
of the colony, to supply country districts with an organisa-
tion for self-government, similar to that which its corpo-
ration affords to a town. They have authority within limits
of, we believe, ten square miles, and, if we understand

' The South Australian Government Gazette,' February, 1873.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 147

aright, combine the duties of members of Petty Sessions,
of Road- Sanitary- and School-boards, and others of the
multifarious public bodies whose various organisations
cover one and the same ground at home.

The whole sum expended in out-relief in South Aus-
tralia in 1872 approached 10,000?., the recipients amount-
ing to 2438, in a population of rather less than 200,000,
or one in eighty-two.

On the 21st July Mr. Reed took E and ourselves a

delightful excursion into the Mount Lofty Range, allowing
us to accompany him in a tour of inspection, made with-
out notice, of the children boarded out in the little town-
ships scattered among the hills. It was a perfect day,
and the pure invigorating air of the hills fully realised
the simile of enthusiastic mountaineers, when they liken
breathing the air upon their favourite heights to drinking
Champagne. Our researches took us into two Govern-
ment schools, attended by the children we were in quest
of. The school-rooms were fairly good, and provided
with maps and other apparatus. All used throughout
the colony are obtained from England. In one the boys
and girls sat together, in the other on separate benches.
In the former the pupils looked remarkably bright, in the
latter the order and silence were most complete.

We inquired the number of scholars at one of the
schools, and found that there were rather more than 100
children on the books, and that the attendance was above
eighty. At Cox's Creek school the children sang with
sweetness far surpassing what one is accustomed to in a col-
lection of such young voices ; it was evident their master
took great pains in training them, and much legitimate
pride in the result. One could not but be touched by the
spirit and feeling with which these little antipodean fel-
low-subjects sang, " God bless the Prince of Wales."
Another of their songs was also full of home associations.
It described the charms of spring, and enumerated the
wild-flowers which greet us at that season. It was of
course an English production, and must, we thought, be
unintelligible to the young Australians, for primroses,

L 2

148 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

cowslips, and daisies are in their country as rare as the
most delicate hot-house flowers with us. We found, how-
ever, when later in the day Mr. Heed concluded our
morning's expedition by taking us to lunch at the house
of his brother-in-law, the Chief Justice, who lives on the
Mount Lofty Range, that English wild-flowers are sedu-
lously cultivated in the cooler temperature of the hills ; so
that, though scarce, the specimens might possibly have
been seen by the children. Here were also camellias in
bloom ; they were, of course, in the open air, and looked
well, in spite of a hoar-frost which had not at one or two
o'clock in the afternoon entirely disappeared, and which,
we were told, had encrusted the window-panes in the early
morning. But to return to the business of the day.

The little boarders seemed quite equal in intelligence
to their companions ; in one school the mistress thought
them superior. Such superiority, if it exist, may be due
to their more regular attendance, as we find to be the case
at home. They wear no uniform, and we could not dis-
tinguish them from their schoolfellows, except that two
boys having weak eyes recalled the pauper-class to mind.
We spoke to these little fellows about their homes, and
immediately their faces brightened all over. Morning
school was almost at an end, and their master dismis-
sing them, that they might show us where they lived,
they ran before us, full of glee. They called their foster-
father " Uncle," and spoke of the house, garden, &c., as
if they had equal ownership in it with him. Two smaller
boys, too young to attend school, were in the same ex-
cellent home. The house, indeed, was roughly built, but
substantial-looking, and a goodly store of bacon and hams
hung from the rafters. The foster-mother was preparing
a hot dinner for the children at a huge wood fire. She
was "from County Wicklow," she told us, and was not
only kindliness itself, but the very pink of neatness.

In another home, though of higher social pretension,
the children did not seem so thoroughly at ease, and
appeared to be regarded ratner as lodgers than as mem-
bers of the family. In the third — a very humble wooden

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 149

cottage, but comfortably furnished, and with a good
garden — the German foster-father, with a nice English
wife, spoke most affectionately of his little wards, a boy
and a girl, who seemed very happy. In the fourth and
last home we saw to-day were three very little children.
Two of them clung to the foster-mother as if they had
been her own. The third was perfectly silent and very
shy, and was thin and delicate-looking. He had been re-
moved from a home, where he had not been kindly treated,
to his present quarters a short time before, and seemed not
yet able to realise the improvement in his circumstances.
A few days later Mr. Reed took us a similar expedition
in another direction. As it is essential in boarding-out
that the children should be widely scattered, not many
of course can be visited in one day. On this occasion
we saw eight or nine. One, though in many respects
advantageously placed, was found not to be attending
school, and Mr. Reed decided she should be removed. It
may be mentioned en passant that he has plenty of homes
to choose from. Five children we found at school — the
best, as far as we could judge during our short stay, that
we have yet visited. The boys, however, were more
prompt to speak than the girls, and answered simple
questions in geography and natural science satisfactorily.

In. one of the homes — all of which were good — the
foster-mother was baking a huge loaf weighing twelve
or fourteen pounds, in a camp-oven. She was good enough
to explain to the strangers of the party its mode of use,
familiar to all colonists. The oven itself is a round iron
pot standing on very short legs, and provided with a lid.
The bottom inside is covered with hot wood-ashes, upon
them is placed the dough, and upon this more ashes are
heaped. The lid being put on, the pot is then quite buried
in hot ashes. When at Bombay a few months later, we
found that the delicate pastry produced by native cooks
is baked in this primitive method.

The view of Adelaide from Mr. Reed's house, at Me-
dindie, is finer than any we had previously seen. From
this point the hills look so lovely — forming a back-ground

150 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

to the city whose rising cathedral and many spires and
towers stand out clearly against their rich green — that one
feels inclined to believe a boast we have heard at Adelaide
that the Melbournites, full of envy and gold, would buy
them if they could.

Coal from New South Wales is now more commonly
used than wood in the town itself, being cheaper there ;
but so little firing is needed even in winter that the smoke
is still too trifling in amount to enwrap the buildings in
even the thinnest haze, except for an hour or two about
meal times. The " breakfast smoke " and " dinner smoke "
are distinctly recognisable.

We were again to have accompanied the Chairman of
Destitute Board in another of his official tours, but the
districts to be visited were more remote from Adelaide,
and our time did not permit. Already he has discovered
that children have a high value in a new country and are
acceptable, as the experience of many years has shown to
be the case in America, in frequent instances without
payment, even though the regulations for supervision are
still to be observed. Thus he is refusing to place out
children with payment (5s. a-week) while good homes
can be obtained for them by adoption, the regulations
laid down for boarding-out being also observed in the case
of adopted children.

His department has now under its charge more than
100 children boarded-out or adopted, and more than
another 100 " placed out," i.e., indentured from Magill and
the Reformatory Schools, the whole number being widely
dispersed over the settled parts of South Australia.

Previous to the adoption of boarding-out by the Destitute

Board, E and other ladies and gentlemen had formed

a society for its promotion by private effort. This asso-
ciation now co-operates with Mr. Reed, supplementing the
supervision which he personally exercises, at an almost
incredible cost of time and fatigue, over all the children
which his duties at Adelaide permit him to reach. More
than seventy members of the society, whose residences
are scattered over an area of 44,000 square miles, perio-

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 151

dically visit the children placed in their neighbourhood,
and report upon their condition, the regularity of their
attendance at school, and at a place of worship. " Neigh-
bourhood " has of course a wider signification in Australia
than with us, and has been liberally defined by some
members of this society to extend to twenty miles, a dis-
tance a lady will cheerfully drive or ride over Australian
roads in the performance of this benevolent duty. It may'
be argued that an occasional visit, where the child is so re-
mote, affords at the best insufficient supervision. But it
must be remembered that where population is so scanty as
in South Australia, every one is more or less acquainted with
every one else by reputation if not personally. The fact
of a child being placed in a family becomes known to the
country round, and if that child does not appear at school
or appears in an unsatisfactory condition, the circumstance
is not long in reaching the visitor's ears, or being reported
direct to Mr. Keed himself. We learn from the last
annual report of the Boarding-out Society, that nearly 300
reports had been sent in by visitors upon the 168 children
under their care. Some of them had been more than a
year, others only a few months, or even weeks, in the
society's charge. Of these reports 260 were good, and
only ten could be regarded as unsatisfactory. Of the
latter and the intermediate class, entitled "tolerable,"
twenty-two indicated faults in the children, not in the
homes, whilst most of the " unsatisfactory " related to
young persons indentured to service, not to the younger
children who have been boarded-out or adopted.*

The trial of a system imported from an old country like
Scotland, into a new one, is full of interest and instruction.
The greater welcorneness of children in the family circle
in a new country, where food is plentiful, must be set
against the temptation to over-tax the strength of these
young people where labour is especially valuable. The

* Second Annual Report of the Society for the supervision of Children
placed out from the Magill Institution by the Destitute Board. Adelaide,
1874.

152 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

balance of evidence is at present in favour of the plan.
Close supervision is indeed as essential to its success at the
Antipodes as at home; but this, in South Australia, is
assured by the active personal interest taken by the Chair-
man of the Destitute Board in the young creatures, for
whose safety he is responsible, and by the wise and zealous
co-operation of the Boarding-out Society. To their com-
bined labours, and to the far more important service ren-
dered in taking these waifs and strays to their homes and
hearts by the kindly honest men and women, of whom,
whether in the Old World or the New, one cannot speak
with too grateful respect, we trust in future years the colony
will have reason to look back with thankfulness for having
saved them from the curse of an hereditary pauper class.

Besides the Government schools we saw in accompany-
ing Mr. Reed, we visited a few under private management.
The former are purely secular ; but in these religious in-
struction is also given. On July 22nd the Dean of
Adelaide, an earnest promoter of education, took us to
three or four in the city. The first has a small endow-
ment, and is managed by trustees. They appoint the
master, part if not all of whose emolument is derived from
the children's payments. These range from 12s. to 25s.
or 30s. a quarter, and the social rank of the scholars varies
considerably. Some pupils are taught Latin and other
of the higher subjects of instruction, and remain till they
are eighteen or nineteen ; but the majority leave at about
twelve. The proportion of girls is small, and they did
not appear equal to the boys in knowledge and intelli-
gence; but the pupils generally seemed bright, and the
teachers successful in imparting instruction to all in their
respective classes. Singing is taught by a special master.
The school-room is good, and the school apparatus, maps,
&c., seemed fairly so. There were nearly 300 pupils
present, the average attendance being 79 per cent, of the
number on the books.

The second school we visited is connected with the
Dean's church, St. Paul's, and is chiefly supported by his
congregation. We saw it at a disadvantage during an

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTEALIA. 153

interregnum between the departure of one head-mistress
and the instalment of another, and on the eve also of re-
moval to new premises. About forty young children only,
of a very humble class, were present, but these sang for us
prettily. The pupils pay a few pence a week, remitted,
we understood, in case of extreme poverty. Ladies give
help regularly, taking classes in turn. One was instructing
a circle of little maidens in darning to-day.

When we reached the third school at three o'clock in
the afternoon it had, unfortunately, just closed, as some do
at that early hour. We went on to the fourth, a private
school for boys of the middle rank, whom we found enjoy-
ing a five minutes' run in their playground. The school-
and class-rooms were good, and the selection of subjects
taught (of which we were shown a programme for every
day in the week) seemed judicious lor lads likely to go
into business. The principal had been master of a Govern-
ment school, and it is not unusual for such a school, or
one managed by trustees, to change its character by the
master resigning his appointment and setting up for him-
self, when his pupils, or at least a large proportion of
them, naturally remain with him. The original managers
engage another master, collect another set of pupils, and
then the same thing happens over again. Schools are
multiplied in this way, but their efficiency is not secured.
One cause of this secession of schoolmasters is the low
salaries they usually receive. We hear the amount
bitterly complained of by those anxious to secure a good
system of popular education. Great dissatisfaction, in-
deed, prevails with the existing state of things. Much
improvement is needed in Government inspection, and at
present no training school for teachers exists.

The building for a Normal School is, however, nearly
completed,* and a Bill to provide efficiently for the edu-

* The Normal School was opened a few days before we embarked for
England, and, to our regret, we were unable to find time to visit it.
Excellent accounts, however, reach us of the efficiency of the teaching
under the direction of a Head Master of ability, and of the large number
of children in attendance.

154 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

cation of the people which shall put this important subject
on a footing as satisfactory as it now occupies in Yictoria,
is hoped for next Session.

For boys of the upper class there is St. Peter's College
under Church of England management, which was largely
endowed by the late Dean Farrell; and Prince Alfred
College, established by the Wesleyans, also, we believe,
endowed by private liberality. Each occupies a handsome
building, standing at present quite in the country. There
are numerous private schools for both sexes, but no institu-
tions for girls corresponding to the colleges. We under-
stand there is an opening for additional teachers of the
highest class, especially teachers of accomplishments. Of
these music is the favourite, and students of singing avail
themselves of the periodical visits of the opera company to
obtain superior instruction.

On a subsequent occasion we visited a poor school in one
of the suburbs of Adelaide. It was built by Mr. Angas,
and an endowment by the same gentleman defrays a
portion of its expenses, the rest being met by subscriptions
and the children's fees. These range from threepence to
sixpence a week, the latter sum obtaining instruction in
geography and grammar. The school-room is really a
noble one, and adjoining is a good class-room ; but there
is no provision for heating either, and on the winter day
of our visit the temperature was unpleasantly cold. Keith
Johnstone's admirable maps hung on the walls, and the
new series of Irish books were those in use. We saw
some excellent writing by the little children, and were
glad to find that the girls are taught sewing. The master
lamented the grievous irregularity of attendance. It
greatly decreases after the third day in the week, so that
a pupil who has nominally attended five years, has really
received but three years' instruction. The excuses offered
are those familiar to us at home — " Wanted to help mother "
— " to mind the baby," &c. &c. The present demand for
labour also has thinned the school, where there are few
pupils above eleven or twelve.

The unsatisfactory state of elementary schools in South

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 155

Australia at the time of our stay in the colony did not tempt
us to visit many or to make more than a passing exami-
nation into their working. The subject was largely en-
gaging public attention, and a Bill embodying important
improvements passed the Lower House in the Session of
1873. but was thrown out by the Legislative Council.
Nothing has since* been done by the Legislature in this
matter ; but it must be hoped that South Australia will
not much longer be content to lag behind New South
Wales and Victoria in providing for the complete edu-
cation of her people.

* February 1875.

156 WE A T WE SAW IN A US Tit ALIA.

CHAPTER IX.

Opening of Parliament — Conditions of Membership — Legislative Coun-
cil — Election of President — The Governor's Speech — Townhall —
Government Offices — City Market — Adelaide Gaol — Labour Prison.

THE second session of the seventh Parliament of South
Australia was opened by the Governor on the 25th July.
Parliament consists of two Chambers — the upper, called the
Legislative Council, and the lower, or House of Assembly.
The qualification and elective franchise for each differ,
and so does the mode of election. The members of the
upper House are elected by the colony at large, and of
the lower by electoral divisions. Members of the upper
House must be thirty years of age, and have resided three
years in the province. The Council consists of eighteen
members, including the President. Electors must be twenty-
one years of age, and must possess a freehold estate of the
value of 50£, or leasehold of the annual value of 20?., or
occupy a dwelling-house of the annual value of 25?.

For membership of the House of Assembly no other
qualification is required than being electors. Electors
must be twenty-one years of age, and must have been
registered on the Electoral Roll of the district in which
they reside, for a period of six months. In fact, the
franchise may be described as "Universal Male Suf-
frage." Voting for both Houses is by ballot. This system,
contrary to the expectations of some, has proved an un-
doubted success, and is, we have been even told, one of
the most Conservative measures ever introduced.

Of the eighteen members in the upper House, six retire
in rotation every fourth year, but are re-eligible. Until
1872, the number of members in the lower Chamber was
thirty-six, but was raised to forty-six by an Act passed in

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 157

that year, when the electoral districts were altered. Mem-
bers are elected for three years, though liable to lose
their seats meanwhile by a dissolution.

We gladly availed ourselves of the opportunity of wit-
nessing the opening of Parliament. The ceremony was to
take place at three o'clock ; but certain forms had to be
previously gone through, and, that we might lose nothing,
we were at the Houses of Parliament before two. Here
we were introduced to Sir George Kingston, the Speaker
of the lower House. Learning that we wished to hear
some of its debates, he not only courteously said he should
mention our names to the doorkeeper that we might
enter at any time, but added, " Remember when I order
' strangers ' to withdraw, you are not to go out." * In
thanking him we expressed our fear that the privilege
thus accorded to our sex might imply that its representa-
tives were in that position regarded as " nobodies," their
presence being absolutely ignored ; and he certainly did
not dispute the inference.

We were now taken to the Strangers' gallery of the
Legislative Council, in which, as the upper House, Par-
liament was to be opened. In the gallery we found
ourselves very far above the occupants of a handsome and
extremely lofty room on the ground-floor of the building.
On a dais at the end opposite to us stood the President's
imposing chair, and a still more magnificent one for the
Governor. A table for the Clerk and Sergeant-at-arms
fronts the dais, and there are most inviting chairs and
desks for the eighteen members, who luxuriate in ample
space. The Keporters' gallery is behind the dais.

At two o'clock the Council met, when seven new mem-
bers (replacing six who had retired by rotation, and one

* In this, as in all other respects, apparently, the South Australian
Houses of Parliament follow the regulations of their English prototypes.
In the House of Assembly, moreover, women are not secluded, Oriental
fashion, from the other sex, but occupy the Strangers' gallery in common
•with men ; so that, in being permitted to remain when the latter have to
withdraw, their presence is more obviously ignored even than in the House
of Commons.

158 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

deceased) had to be sworn in, and the Chief Justice and
Mr. Justice Gwynne attended in their robes as Commis-
sioners to administer the oath of allegiance. This oath is
founded upon those formerly taken by members of the
English Parliament, superseded in 1868 by the present
short form, but in use at the time that the South Australian
Constitution was granted. It omits, indeed, reference to
the "damnable doctrines of the Pope," but retains the
repudiation of any and all forms of conspiracy against the
Queen's Majesty in such strong and repeated asseverations,
that it raised the idea of enemies lying in wait in all direc-
tions to corrupt the loyalty of the members, and traitors
of the blackest dye lurking behind every tree in the Park-
lands ! It was, of course, the incongruity of the associa-
tions, aroused by the words spoken with the circumstances
of this new and remote country, which irresistibly suggested
a ludicrous side to so grave a ceremony. But we could
not but be impressed, too, with the might and influence
of England, revealed in every form and observance,
implying allegiance as profound to the Queen, and identi-
fication as complete with her realm among these, her far-off
subjects, as can be found at the very heart of her empire.

The House being thus complete in numbers, proceeded
to fill the President's Chair, vacated by the resignation of
Sir John Morphett. Mr. Milne was chosen his successor,
and was conducted to the Chair by the gentlemen who
moved and seconded his election.

A member of the Cabinet now moved that the Council
proceed to Government House to present their President
elect to the Governor, at such time as His Excellency
shall name for that purpose ; which was no sooner carried
than the same minister stated he was in a position to
announce that His Excellency the Governor was prepared
to receive the Council forthwith, and moved an adjourn-
ment for a quarter of an hour. All withdrew, but Govern-
ment House is close by, and the members were soon in
their places again. The President, who in the interval
had donned his official silk gown, long cravat, and ruffles
of lace, and white gloves, informed the Council that they

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 159

had presented him to His Excellency the Governor, who
had been pleased to approve of their choice, and had con-
ceded to them all the usual rights and privileges of legis-
lative bodies.

Some routine business was transacted, followed by
another adjournment of the Council, until ten minutes
past three. They had hardly taken their places again
when sounds in the distance — " cheers of the populace,"
we should probably say, were we writing for to-morrow
morning's paper — indicated the approach of the Governor.
Before he appeared, Mrs. and Miss Musgrave were escorted
to chairs close to the dais. All rose as he entered the
Chamber and awaited his invitation to be seated. The
members of the Legislative Assembly were summoned by
command of His Excellency, and appeared — tumultuously
of course — behind the bar. Retaining his seat, and look-
ing in his uniform of blue and gold, with black cocked
hat fringed with white ostrich feather, which he only re-
moved for a few instants during the last words of his
address, a most gracious and dignified representative of
Her Majesty, the Governor then read the following speech.
We give it at length, because, besides showing the Parlia-
mentary forms retained, it indicates, by the topics touched
upon, various subjects of deep interest in the colony.

HONORABLE GENTLEMEN OP THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL AND GENTLE-
MEN OF THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY —

1. It affords me much gratification to have an early opportunity of
meeting you, on my assuming the administration of the Government of
this loyal and prosperous Province.

2. I wish to assure you of my deep sense of the important trust
which has been confided to me, as the representative of our Most
Gracious Sovereign, and of my anxious desire to co-operate with you
cordially in all measures for the good of the Colony. I shall not forget
those constitutional principles by which my conduct should be governed :
but where such knowledge or experience as I may have acquired in
official service elsewhere can be useful to the community, it will always
be freely at your disposal. The functions which I cannot delegate to
others I shall endeavour to discharge with faithfulness to the Colony,
believing that I shall so best perform my duty to the Queen ; but I
shall always listen with careful attention to the counsel of my Ministers
and the suggestions which their personal knowledge of local needs

160 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

places them in a position to offer. It is in such mutual confidence
that the surest guarantee is found by the community at large, for the
successful operation of that system of government which we have a
common pride in administering. It will be my great aim during my
residence among you to preserve and promote, to the extent of my
ability, the loyal attachment to our Sovereign and our national Consti-
tution and traditions, which has ever distinguished the people of this
Province. And I feel that I may be assured of your support in the
exercise of any constitutional authority properly belonging to the office
which I have the honour to hold.

3. A General Conference of the Australian Colonies upon the Mail
Service contracts, and other subjects of importance, was held in Sydney,
in the months of January and February, 1873, and the valuable and
interesting Report of their proceedings will be laid before you, together
with copies of the important Conventions which have been agreed to on
the question of the Border Duties. The negotiations, however, for the
New Postal Mail Service have not yet been completed, but there is. a
prospect of a speedy and satisfactory settlement of the question.

GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY —

4. It is with much satisfaction that I am able to congratulate you
upon the present prosperous condition of the Colony. The revenue for
the first six months of the year has greatly exceeded the estimated
amount ; and there is every reason to believe that the revenue for the
whole year will also be largely in excess of what was expected.

5. During the last Session authority was given by Parliament for
raising certain amounts by loan, to be applied to various useful public
works. It has not been found necessary to exercise this authority to its
full extent, but part of the loans authorized have been negotiated on
terms most advantageous to the public, and the works are now in
progress.

6. Supplementary Estimates for the service of the year 1873 will be
immediately laid before you. They contain items of expenditure ren-
dered necessary by the urgency of the works undertaken.

7. The Estimates for 1874 will be submitted for your consideration
as early as possible, and will be found to have been framed with a view
to efficiency as well as economy. There will be separate Estimates for
the Northern Territory.

8. A Commission was appointed, in compliance with your Address,
to inquire into the Law relating to Real Property and Intestacy, more
especially as affected by the Real Property Act, the Testamentary
Causes Act, and the Acts abolishing the Rights of Primogeniture. A
long and able Report has been made to me by the Commissioners, and
will be presented to you.

HONORABLE GENTLEMEN AND GENTLEMEN —

9. The pressing necessity of providing immediately for an increase to
the working population of the country will be forthwith brought under

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 161

your notice, and you will be asked to sanction the expenditure required
for the introduction of immigrants in order to meet the demands for
labour which will exist at the coming season of harvest.

10. The experience gained from the working of the new Education
Act in Victoria will assist my Government in framing a Bill on this
important subject, which will be submitted to Parliament during the
present Session.

11. A measure with a view to provide in a more satisfactory manner
for the construction and maintenance of the main roads in this Province
will be submitted for your consideration.

12. The rapid influx of population into the Northern Territory
will render fresh legislation immediately necessary for that important
part of the Colony, and various Bills providing for the administration of
the law and the better protection of life and property there will shortly
be laid before you.

13. A Bill to encourage the formation of a railway to Port Danvin,
in consideration of certain concessions of land to be made to the con-
structors, will be introduced during the Session.

14. The unprecedented increase of traffic on the railways and the
urgent necessity for meeting the demands of the approaching harvest
induced my Government to order considerable additions to the rolling
stock, and to take preliminary steps for erecting new goods-sheds, plat-
forms, and other accommodation at Port Adelaide and at the principal
stations on the Northern Line of Railway. A Bill for power to raise the
necessary funds will be laid before you.

15. The principal contracts in connexion with the construction of
the Lacepede and Naracoorte Railway have been entered into, and the
works are in progress.

16. Preliminary surveys have been made for communication between
the Northern Areas and the seaboard, and between Kadina and Port
Wakefield ; and trial surveys are also in progress for a line of railway
between Port Adelaide and the River Murray.

17. I may generally allude to the many measures for improving our
harbours and promoting internal communication, which will have to
engage your attention during the Session ; but the desirability of a
steady and proportionate increase to the population should be kept in
view when you are providing for extensive public works.

18. A Bill to provide for the amendment of the Laws relating to
Insolvency, and other Bills of considerable importance will be brought
under your notice by my Government. I commend them to your
consideration, and earnestly pray that it may please Almighty God to
direct all your deliberations so as to secure the advancement and per-
manent welfare of this Province.

19. I now declare this Session to be opened.

The speech concluded the Governor departed, the
President and members attending him to the door of the

M

162 WE A T WE SAW IN A USTBALIA.

House. And now a knotty question was raised by the pro-
posal of a member, that the Governor's speech should be
forthwith read, and a committee appointed to draft the
address in reply. The President closed the discussion by
informing the Chamber, " that in the British Houses of
Parliament important matters were often allowed to
intervene between the delivery of the Queen's Speech and
its after consideration. It was a point of privilege to
which they attached much importance, and which they
carefully guarded. They had, however, transacted some
business already, and he would now proceed to read the
Governor's speech." Having done so, a select committee
was elected by ballot, to prepare the address ; and, after an
adjournment, came the " ministerial explanation " conse-
quent on the recent " crisis " and change in the Cabinet.

On August 13th we were present at a sitting of the House
of Assembly, but it began at half-past two, and we arrived
at three, so that we did not see the opening forms, They
are, however, we understood, the same as those observed in
the House of Commons. The Chamber, in size and arrange-
ments, closely resembles the Upper House ; the number of
members being double, they are much closer together.

The Treasurer, Mr. Glyde, was explaining the financial
arrangements of the late Ministry, and the House then
proceeded to pass the estimates for the present Session,
a short debate arising occasionally on the items. In the
course of one of these, the disgraceful state of a certain
piece of road near Saddleworth was severely commented
upon by an indignant member, and attributed to disregard
of an Act of Parliament prescribing the width of tire of
waggon wheels, which the speaker hotly demanded should
be rigorously enforced.

Some of the speakers have the regular Parliamentary
manner and voice, but this is by no means the rule ; and
the remarks on fellow-members are more personal than in
the House of Commons. Moreover, a speaker occasionally
refers to another by his own name instead of that of the
place he represents, thus depriving Sir George Kingston
of the awe-inspiring power ol " naming " a member ! The

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 163

Chief Secretary (the Hon. Arthur Blyth) was frequently
attacked, and repelled his adversaries in a very humorous
off-hand manner. We heard the opening portion of a
speech by Mr. Boucaut, but could not stay for the con-
elusion. It was an attack on free immigration, to support
which the present Government came in. The debate on
the sum (5000Z.) asked for in the estimate for this object
was continued at the following sitting, and resulted in that
amount being granted. Had it been negatived the
•ministry would have gone out. Resignation of their seats
and re-election are not required in members of a new
Cabinet ; and change of Government is a matter of such
common occurrence, that Mr. Blyth told us he had lost
count of the times he had been in and out of office.

August 7th. — We went into the Town Hall to-day.
The ground-floor is occupied by a spacious council room
adorned with a grand civic chair upon a dais, by the
Town-clerk's and other offices, and by a large apartment
intended, when the building was designed, for an Exchange,
but it has not found favour with the merchants, and is
used for entertainments, meetings, &c. The floor above
constitutes the Town Hall proper. This is not large, but
impresses one agreeably by the excellence of its propor-
tions, its convenient arrangement, and the good taste of
the decorations. The windows are numerous, and can all
be opened at the top by means of a winch placed at one
end of each wall. Beneath each window, and about eight
feet from the . floor, is a ventilator. We were told the
room never becomes close, and our experience of it at an
evening entertainment was certainly favourable. On that
occasion — the Bachelor's Ball — the flowers with which the
hall was adorned were mingled with a profusion of ferns.
Some of these were very rare species brought from the
Botanical Gardens, but the most effective were wild ones cut
in the Mount Lofty gullys. Their graceful fronds, some-
times six feet long, were grouped in the fashion of the Prince
of Wales' plume,and so placed at intervals all round the hall.

A gallery occupying one end has a pretty facade of
arches. There are supplementary rooms on th* same floor

M 2

164: WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

with the hall, and two kitchens, where preparations were
going briskly forward for a ball to take place to-night.

Near to the Town Hall are the Government offices, pre-
senting a handsome front to King William Street. The
building in the rear surrounds three sides of a quadrangle.
In this is a pretty garden, upon which the private rooms
of the ministers' chiefly look, and delightfully airy and
quiet they appeared. They are shaded by broad verandahs,
but on the sunless side these are roofed with glass. The dif-
ferent Government departments are all collected in this
building, including two for which we have no parallel at
home — those, namely, for the Protection of the Aborigines
and for the inspection of sheep. The latter is con-
cerned with the prevention of the spread of disease
amongst these animals ; stringent regulations being in
force to prevent infected flocks from coming on to land
occupied by healthy ones.

Victoria Square lies across King William Street, the
carriage road being carried round, and foot-passengers
only allowed to traverse it. A little west of the square is
the City Market, to which we next repaired. Being late
in the day there was little but the extensive sheds, of
which the building consists, to be seen ; but its history is
curious as an illustration of the well-known caprice which
seems to rule the success or non-success of these establish-
ments. Several years since a market was opened by
private speculation on East Terrace, at the extreme end of
the town. It paid so well, that the Corporation thought
one more centrally placed must prove highly profitable, and
opened one in a situation which appeared very favourable.
Neither buyers or sellers would frequent it. Another was
substituted in a different, but promising part of the
city, with similar results ; that we were now visiting was
the third attempt, and though in the very heart of
Adelaide, had been attended with little better success.

Besides three or four small prisons in the provinces used
for offenders of both sexes, whose sentences do not exceed
six months, and possessing accommodation for ten or

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 165

twelve ipmates each, there are two gaols in South Aus-
tralia— the " Labour Prison " at Yatala, six or eight miles
from Adelaide, for male convicts only ; and the Adelaide
Gaol, for female prisoners of all categories, and for men
whose sentences do not exceed six months. On the 1st of
August we visited the latter.

This is a well-built stone edifice, erected in 1840, about
a mile beyond the city bounds. To-day it contained sixty-
six males and twenty-eight females; the sexes occupying,
of course, distinct quarters. The prisoners sleep in
separate cells, but work by day in association, when talk-
ing is allowed, if not noisy or offensive. The cells are
good, but those for men are the best, except that theirs
on the ground-floor are flagged, while all occupied by
women are boarded. The men sleep in hammocks, the
women on a broad wooden shelf, formerly on the bare
boards, but recently mattresses have been supplied. The
whole building, with the exception of one of the day-
rooms used for women, and a portion of their side of the
prison which was undergoing alteration, was scrupulously
clean and in order.

The food is good and very abundant, one pound of meat
a day being allowed per head. The uniform — for the
males, a coloured shirt and coarse white trousers ; for the
females, a dark serge gown — is neat and comfortable, such
as tidy working people might wear ; and the general aspect
of the prisoners is cheerful and self-respectful, while the
manner of the officers towards them is kindly. There
was only one among them who had the depraved aspect
of the inmates of our gaols at home ; but these, it must
be remembered, usually belong to the class who make a
living by crime — a class which cannot exist in a sparse
population. There are districts even in England where
there is so little apprehension of thieves that windows and
doors are habitually left unfastened at night. But they
are remote from the large towns essential to depredators,
since in them only can they obt«in the co-operation of
crime-capitalists (as they have been called), the receivers
of stolen goods, proprietors of flash houses, &c., without

166 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

whom it is impossible for them to pursue their nefarious
calling. Even in old countries where the complete crimi-
nal organisation here indicated has long existed, it may be
paralysed by attacking these capitalists ; and one effectual
means thereto is to make landlords responsible if they
receive as tenants persons known to be living on the
proceeds of crime.* In new communities the adoption of
this course would prevent professional plunderers from
ever obtaining a footing in the land.

A large proportion in this prison, as in England, go in and
out frequently, becoming, probably, each time rather worse
than before. The very short sentences are for slight
offences chiefly caused by drunkenness. Some prisoners,
however, are of an entirely different class. They are
sailors whose vessels are in port, and who having shown or,
perhaps, only been suspected of, a disposition to break
their engagements, have been locked up, on the applica-
tion of their captains, till the time for sailing shall arrive.
Desertion from English ships is very common in ports
remote from home, where much higher wages usually
can be obtained for the return voyage than masters will
pay for the voyage out. But there are in South Australia,
and probably in the other colonies too, persons who regard
as a great abuse the power possessed by captains to avail
themselves, when in port, of the prison for the safe-keeping
of their men, at the expense of the colony ; to say nothing
of injustice or injury done to the men themselves. They
maintain that the agreement made in England should be
for the voyage out only, and that the return voyage should
be the subject of a fresh engagement. In the first case
the wages, it is said, would be little more than nominal,
and would thus compensate for the high sum demanded
for working the ship back again. A terrible murder
occurred a few days ago, in consequence of the present
state of the law. Four sailors were lately consigned to
prison by their captain from the usual motive, and on the

* ' Criminal Capitalists,' by Edwin Hill ; ' Report of the International
Prison Congress,' London, 1872.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 167

eve of his sailing were returned to him against their will.
The ship had scarcely started, when they attacked him
with a belaying pin, possibly not with the intention of
killing him, but in the hope of being sent back to prison
for the assault, and so escaping the fulfilment of their
engagement But the captain died of their blows ; the
first mate brought the vessel back to Adelaide, and the men
are now in gaol awaiting their trial on the capital charge.*

The men in the Adelaide gaol cook for the whole esta-
blishment, make mats and coarse bags, pick oakum, break
stones, cultivate about twenty acres of land, and manu-
facture oil from olives grown thereon. The land is outside
the prison walls and the warders are unarmed, but as
escape would be visited with five years' penal servitude in
case of recapture, and as recapture is almost certain, there
is practically no risk of these short-sentenced prisoners
running away. The men are being employed also at
present in the enlargement of the gaol, for which they
supply the unskilled labour. The women do all the wash-
ing, make the men's clothes and their own, and pick oakum,
six pounds,we believe, being a day's work.

The mark system has just been introduced. Three
marks daily can be earned, denoting respectively positive,
comparative, and superlative degrees of industry ; but
they are allotted by the warders, and can hardly be re-
garded as a very accurate adjustment of reward to desert.
These marks, we understood, are the only incentive to do
well offered to the women. The men can in addition earn
rations of tobacco. The prisoners were spoken of as
usually " very quiet," and the object of the prison arrange-
ment seemed to be to preserve order among the inmates
while there rather than to train them to avoid returning,
and re-commitments apparently are not infrequent.

There is a chapel, but a very ugly one, in the prison.
Religious instruction is imparted entirely by volunteers.
An Episcopalian clergyman and a Dissenting minister

* The men were convicted, and sentence of death was passed upon
them ; but it was subsequently commuted to penal servitude for life.

168 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

conduct worship at different hours on Sundays ; all the
prisoners may attend both services, and usually do so,
although a large proportion are Roman Catholics, who are
visited by a priest. There is no schoolmaster. Some ladies
visit the women and give them instruction, but the men re-
ceive none. There are, however, a few books for their use.

The men rise at six, and the women a little later.
About eight hours are given to actual labour, exclusive of
arranging cells, serving meals, &c., and all the prisoners
are locked up for the night at six o'clock. As in this
latitude the cells must be dark by seven o'clock, even in
the height of summer, and there are no artificial means
of lighting them, the prisoners are reduced to enforced
idleness for nearly half of the twenty-four hours. The
reason for this undesirable arrangement is the cost of
lighting the cells and of superintendence in the evening.

The prison for male convicts (those under sentence for
more than six months) at Yatala is in an open situa-
tion on a rocky soil, and a few miles distant from the
sea. It is sometimes spoken of as the Stockade, but more
precisely as the Dry creek Labour Prison. We had the
advantage of visiting it on the 20th August with Mr.
W. K. Boothby, who was appointed in 1869 Comptroller
of gaols, or, as we should say, Director of prisons. We
were accompanied also by Mr. Scott, the able Superin-
tendent of the gaol, and were favoured with the lullest
information on every point on which we wished to inquire.

The gaol contains 172 separate cells, besides four for
punishment ; the number of prisoners on the day of our
visit was eighty-eight. The majority are between the ages
of twenty-five and forty-five, which is above the average
age in the mother country. Many are believed to come from
the other colonies, and the supposition that they are ex-im-
perial convicts would account for their more advanced years.

The men eat and sleep separately, but work in asso-
ciation. One workroom (large and airy) suffices, as repairs
to clothes constitutes almost the whole indoor labour, ex-
clusive of cooking and cleaning. The small number of
prisoners would make it costly to employ trades-teachers,

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 169

and the men are chiefly occupied in quarrying and break-
ing stone, which constitutes really " hard labour." A cubic
yard of road metal is considered a day's work. Any excess
is paid for with marks as overtime.

The prisoners also cultivate twenty acres of land. All
the vegetables consumed in the prison, except potatoes,
are raised here, and we saw also a fine patch of wheat
growing. Here, as at Adelaide gaol, we were struck with
the industrious air and manly bearing of the prisoners ; and
especially with the kindly and indeed courteous manner
towards them of all the officials, following the example of
the Comptroller himself. Mr. JBoothby's theory is " to
make the prisoners work hard and to treat them like men,"
and to the reduction of this theory to practice may pro-
bably be attributed their good health, the small proportion
of prison offences, and the fact that they earn in hard cash
half the cost of their maintenance, independent of the
value of their labour not paid for in money. The out-door
work is carried on beyond the prison walls, and as several
men are under long sentences and some for life, it is neces-
sary to guard against attempts to escape. One man,
indeed, did get away lately, and ran four miles before he
was retaken. Yet except for light leg-irons on the life-
sentenced, a few warders visible two or three of whom
posted on " coigns of vantage " carried muskets with fixed
bayonets (the others having pistols concealed in a pouch),
and a number and broad arrow marked not very con-
spicuously on. the well-looking clothes of the prisoners,
there was nothing to remind one that they were not free
labourers. It seemed to us that they might, with their
pickaxes, soon have put an end to their officers and us too,
had they been so minded. No attack, whatever, has
occurred, we understood, since the present Comptroller
entered on his appointment and re-organised the prison
arrangements ; and the perfect freedom with which our
party of ladies and gentlemen walked among the prisoners
without hearing a bad word or seeing the least sign of dis-
courtesy was strong testimony to the healthy tone prevailing.

The prison consists of the main body containing 136

170 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

cells, in three tiers, and a new wing with thirty-six cells.
This was built, of the fine stone they quarry, by the
prisoners with the assistance of skilled masons. It is
very handsome so far as material and good workman-
ship go, but neither here or in any other part of the gaol
has money been wasted in decoration. The chapel, also
built by the prisoners, is light and cheerful and prettily
finished. It displays a modest attempt at stained glass
windows, and is supplied with handsome mats woven in
the prison, but contains nothing unduly costly. The ground-
floor cells throughout the gaol are flagged, and in the main
building they are somewhat dark ; sunshine rarely enters
them, but artificial heat in winter is not considered neces-
sary. On the upper floors they are boarded. In all, the
men sleep on a broad wooden shelf, spread with a straw
mattress. Their bedding is given to them at night by a
warder, who takes away their day clothes. Each cell is
furnished with the means of striking a gong to summon an
officer in case of need.

In the wing, the newly arrived are lodged and remain
till another batch of prisoners come, when they are re-
moved to the main building, so as to prevent intercourse
with those fresh from the outer world. In this respect,
and in separating the youths — of whom there were five
present on the day of our visit — from the adults so far as
the existing prison arrangements permit, there is a cer-
tain degree of classification observed.

Exquisite cleanliness and order prevailed throughout
the building. In the kitchen, though about the dinner-
hour, not a speck or stain of any kind was to be seen. Both
storekeeper and cook are prisoners, and other offices are
similarly filled, their work being so estimated that they,
like the out-door labourers, can earn marks by overtime.
These appointments are frequently considered desir-
able by the men, but very little, if any, use is made of this
circumstance as an incitement to good conduct, special
fitness for the post being usually the reason for selection.

After receiving sentence each prisoner is photographed
at the Adelaide Gaol, in his ordinary dress. On arrival at

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 171

Yatala. he is again photographed in prison costume. The
portraits are preserved on two cards joined together; on
their back is recorded the man's name and age, a minute
description of his personal appearance, his offence and
sentence. A bit of pasteboard, the size of two visiting-
cards, thus compendiously presents the principal facts
known concerning him. A register of his personal ap-
pearance is also kept in a book, with such information of
his history as can be obtained.

The period of detention is not divided into stages through
which the prisoners can work their way upwards ; but a
mark system of simple character is employed, marks being
given for industry only. Three per day is the maximum
attainable ; they are allotted by the chief wardsraen and
countersigned by the governor of the gaol. The men are
not given mark-books themselves, but the amount gained
is explained from time to time ; they have opportunity
for enquiry and expression of their opinion to the Comp-
troller, and each man keeps a tally himself. Each mark
tells, however infinitesimally in shortening imprisonment,
except of course in life sentences ; and even then in case
of commutation, which is so frequent as to be almost
the rule, previous industry is taken into account. The
maximum portion remissible is about one quarter of the
sentence, and this privilege attaches to all sentences
exceeding six months in duration.

The men are provided with one suit of clothes only, and
as there is a difficulty in drying them out-door labour
ceases in heavy rain, but as such cessation diminishes the
opportunity for earning marks, it is very unpopular ;
malingering likewise is rare. A medical officer visits the
gaol daily, and the infirmary is a very comfortable room.

No money can be earned in prison, but a gratuity of
27. is given on discharge. There is a prejudice, we were
informed, in South Australia against ex-prisoners, which
makes it difficult for them to obtain employment, notwith-
standing the great demand for labourers ; but a Prisoner's
Aid Society, recently established by the Rev. Wilton Hack,
is helping the well-disposed. That there should be any

172 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

difficulty probably indicates want of faith in the reforma-
tion of the men ; and indeed we were impressed with the
feeling that, in Yatala Gaol as too often elsewhere, the
good conduct of the prisoner rather than that of the
liberated man was the chief object in view. Yet con-
siderable reformatory effect is claimed, and it would
appear claimed with justice. The last report informs us
that the recommittals during 1873 were fewer than in
former years ; and it gives the number of prisoners in
gaol, at the end of each year, from 1868 to 1873, showing
an uninterrupted decrease from 140 to 91.*

A schoolmaster attends on week-day evenings to instruct
prisoners under eighteen years of age, and any of the elder
men who are ignorant The better educated are allowed
to read in the school-room (a comfortable one, having
maps on the walls and a sufficiency of school apparatus)
when space there can be spared ; but* often this is not the
case, and as the cells are unsupplied with artificial light
employment in them ceases with daylight. The Comp-
troller disapproves of this regulation. It is caused by the
parsimony of the Government, who will not pay the cost
of lighting the cells.

The men work for an hour from six A.M. in summer and
seven in winter ; again from nine to one, and two to six,
with two intervals of a quarter of an hour for — smoking !
The cessation from work is obligatory, because of the
difficulty of superintending some at labour and some
resting, but smoking we believe is optional. The food
supplied is very liberal and tobacco forms a regular ration.

There are no appointed chaplains but, as at the
Adelaide gaol, clergymen of different denominations visit
voluntarily. Besides Sunday services they attend on week
days to give religious instruction. As they do not always
come at fixed hours, the interruption to labour creates
serious inconvenience ; but on the other hand the volun-
tary character of their teaching has probably a better

* ' Report from the Comptroller of Labour Prisons,' Adelaide, February
1874.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 173

influence on the prisoners than if they knew it to be paid
for. Attendance at service on Sundays is compulsory on
the men, but we were told they seemed to join in worship
heartily. Punishment consists in seclusion in cell by
order of the governor of the gaol for short periods, some-
times in darkness ; in extreme cases the visiting justice and
another magistrate acting in concert, can order separate
confinement for three months in periods of one month each.
One wretched man, a murderer, whose sentence passed
many years ago, was commuted to imprisonment for life,
is almost always in cell for violent conduct. At home
probably he would be treated as a criminal lunatic. In
South Australia there is no special prison for his class.
The safety of his companions requires his separation, and
no means apparently have been discovered of kindling
whatever spark of goodness remains in his breast. On
the contrary, repeated punishment seems to brutalise him
more and more. The consciousness of so hopeless and
miserable an existence separated from us but by the thick-
ness of a wall, saddened what otherwise, owing to the
admirable discipline, the self-respectful aspect of the men,
the good effect already apparent from the reforms insti-
tuted by Mr. Boothby, and — it must be confessed — pos-
sibly also the brilliancy of a climate which sheds a glow
over even the dreariest circumstances of life, will be re-
membered by us as among the most cheerful of our many
visits within prison boundaries.

A hunt club exists at Adelaide, which meets frequently
during the winter season on Saturday afternoon. This is
the time sacred to holiday, and must never be invaded by
business of any kind, as we discovered when the time for
a proposed meeting for a philanthropic object was under
consideration. Only ladies were to be invited, and in our
ignorance of manners and customs we suggested Saturday
afternoon, but we were at once assured that not one of the
invited would appear, South Australian ladies counting on
spending the half-holiday with father, husband, or brother.

One day when it was known that the hunt would pass

174 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

Stonyfell, E rode thither to witness the sight. Shortly

before the arrival of the dogs, a horseman appeared
galloping along taking a very serpentine course, now
crossing a paddock, now jumping a fence. He held a cord
in one hand with a rag soaked in kerosine tied to the other.
This he carefully trailed along the ground as he galloped,
and thus created a scent for the hounds to follow.

Deer and foxes are not in Australia. They would if
introduced probably multiply so rapidly as to become as
great a nuisance as rabbits have been in Tasmania. In
Victoria a few foxes are kept on purpose for the chase,
which the dogs are not allowed to kill. Dingoes are also
hunted in the same way.

One rich proprietor imported deer for his estate, and
gives occasionally a stag to the Melbourne hunt. The
kangaroo would afford no sport if chased with horses and
foxhounds ; but so ingrain in the Anglo-Saxon is the love
of galloping over fields and jumping fences and streams in
hot pursuit, that as no convenient animals exist in our
colonies, he follows the smell of kerosine, or sometimes
that of a red herring !

When the huntsmen appeared in scarlet coats, preceded
by the hounds, they formed a pretty sight in the brilliant
sunshine as they galloped across the undulating ground,
taking a fence every now and then, though not looking
quite equal to a hunt in full career at home. The fences
were not always taken ; because wire is often stretched
between the rails to prevent sheep and cattle passing
through, and it is apt, as it is not easily distinguishable
either by horse or rider, to cause dangerous falls.

The sight was rendered still more agreeable by the re-
flection that no poor animal was contributing to this
amusement by being subjected for hours to fatigue and
terror, only to be killed at last ; an illusion however most

painfully dispelled when E learnt it is held necessary

that the killing propensities of the dogs which have been
aroused and sustained by a long chase should be gratified.
To tear a kerosine rag to pieces is supposed not to be a
sufficient reward for their toil, and a living animal is

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 175

sacrificed to their passions. Consequently poor rabbits
are rubbed over with kerosine and let loose where the
scent of the rag comes to an end.

After the hunt had passed R rode on with C

among the beautiful hills of the neighbourhood. The
wattles were just opening their long sprays of yellow
blossom. Groups of these trees at a distance resemble
laburnum, though the flower is in the shape of a ball.
The seed possesses the characteristic of germinating even
after lying for several years, as it were asleep, in the
earth, if this be ploughed. The early leaves of the wattle
resemble those of the acacia, to which family it belongs ;
but when these fall off their successors are of an entirely
different shape, very like the foliage of the gum. The
once common belief that Australian flowers have no smell
has not yet quite passed away ; the wattle is one of many
proving its fallacy.

In our ride we came upon the house where the hunt
lunch had been given. As the scent can be made to end
at whatever spot the hunters choose, it is easy to fix upon
one convenient for refreshment. To-day it was at the
residence of an extensive wine grower, and he had enter-
tained his guests in his cellar ; not an underground exca-
vation, but a lofty building something like a barn of large
dimensions. Huge casks containing wine are permanently
ranged along the walls, and the table was placed between
them.

The house is beautifully situated among the hills, and
the green slopes planted with standard apricots and peaches
just then in blossom surrounded it with beauty. We had
to lower several slip panels to reach it, as we had not
followed any recognised road, and once to untwist the
wire stretched between the posts. But such cool proceed-
ings are common enough in Australia, the proprietors of
the land being generally quite satisfied if the panels be
replaced and the wire twisted again. Gates are rare, slip
panels supplying their place. These are rails in the fence
which are loose and, fitting into holes in the posts, can be
drawn out and put in with great facility.

176 WE A T WE SAW IN A US TRALIA.

CHAPTEK X.

Projected visit to Mount Remarkable — Port Lincoln — Kindness of
Fellow Travellers — Superintendent of the Mission Station — Poo-
nindie — Native School at Adelaide — Bishop of Perth — Native
Eeserve — Additional Land Purchased — Agriculture — Church —
School — Recreation — Cottages — Festival — Bishop of Adelaide —
Results.

A LETTEE of introduction from a friend in England to
Professor Pearson was acknowledged by his asking us to
stay at his house, in the neighbourhood of Mount Remark-
able, nearly 200 miles north-west of Adelaide. We had
gladly accepted an invitation offering enjoyment in many
ways ; but engagements at Adelaide had for several weeks
delayed our availing ourselves of it, and the impediments
to travelling in the interior in the depth of winter — con-
sisting in roads converted to swamps, broken bridges, and
rivers risen to unfordable height — had also postponed our
departure.

Towards the end of August we were told we might
safely begin our expedition. Our route was carefully laid
out for us, and every precaution taken by our friends to
secure our comfort during the three weeks' absence we
contemplated. On the afternoon of the 25th we em-
barked in the little steamer ' Lubra ' for Port Augusta,
at the head of Spencer's Gulf. She would call on her
way at Port Lincoln, near the mouth of the Gulf, and
ten miles from Port Lincoln, is the Missionary Station for
natives at Poonindie. This we much desired to visit, and,
to do so, chose the sea-route ; for, practically, the station
is inaccessible by other means. We started, however, in
uncertainty of being able to accomplish our purpose, for
the ' Lubra ' would be at Port Lincoln barely long enough
to enable us to do so under the most favourable circum-
stances ; and as there would be, if 'she departed without

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 177

us, no means of continuing our journey to Port Augusta
until she should return a fortnight later, we could not risk
being left behind. The evening was fine, except for a
cutting wind, which, however, did not roughen the water
of St. Vincent's Gulf; but after we had passed Kangaroo
Island, there was nothing to shelter us from the Southern
Ocean. This portion of the voyage we were told is always
more or less rough, and on the present occasion it was
certainly "more."

The 'Lubra,' moreover, has a reputation for rolling,
which she did not fail to sustain. Few of her passengers
probably slept through the night, and in the morning,
some who had never been ill in their lives before, con-
fessed to having succumbed. Heavy rain was falling, and
the probability of our reaching Poonindie seemed much
smaller than when, in sanguine mood, we had resolved to
make the attempt. We began to think we had better
have travelled to Mount Kemarkable by land !

Port Lincoln is extremely beautiful, but the thick
weather concealed much of its loveliness as we approached.
The town consists of a church, with a few houses and stores.
A bay, protected by Boston Island, and possessing ample
depth of water, constitutes the finest harbour, indeed the
only good one in South Australia. Port Lincoln was
selected by Captain Hindmarsh, who, being a sailor fell
in love with its capabilities for safe anchorage, as the site
for the metropolis; but the poverty of the surrounding
country discouraged the idea.

Long since Adelaide was founded, rich land has been
discovered not very remote from Port Lincoln, though too
distant, perhaps, to have vindicated the choice of this spot
for the capital.

The rain ceased before we reached the long jetty where
we were to disembark, and all our thoughts were bent on
quickly landing, and starting for Poonindie with the least
possible loss of time. We bad already learnt that there
was but one conveyance for hire at the port, spoke a of by
the generic name of " trap;" and on the chance of that
being disengaged depended accomplishing our desire. A

N

178 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

gentleman to whom A had introduced us when we

came on board at Port Adelaide, kindly hastened on shore
to secure it for us, were it to be had. Meanwhile another
fellow-traveller, to whom we were perfect strangers, having
overheard the expression of our hopes and fears respecting
Poonindie, meeting Mr. Hoi den, the superintendent of
that institution upon the jetty, brought him to us, that
we might ourselves explain to him our wishes. Instantly
he devoted himself to their fulfilment, begging us to
accompany him on shore. The captain of the 'Lubra'
had meanwhile obligingly promised that he would not
start without us, though we felt none the less bound to be
on board at the time fixed for sailing. On shore we soon
met the friend who had tried to secure for us the " trap,"
coming to report that his effort had failed, the vehicle
being absent. Mr. Holden, however, held out some hope
of finding another, and saying he would at once ascertain
if one could be got, invited us to wait meanwhile at the
house of a friend, where he and Mrs. Holden were spending
the day. The * Lubra ' had brought the fortnightly mail
from Adelaide — an important event in a wide neighbour-
hood, of which Port Lincoln is the centre ; and they had
driven in " to town " (as we heard it expressed) to fetch
their letters. Soon he reappeared, unsuccessful in hiring
a vehicle, but telling us that his own horses, which were
only just unharnessed after their ten miles' run, should
be put again into the buggy, and he would drive us out
himself. We remonstrated, but it is to be feared the
strength of our desire to see Poonindie made our remon-
strances proportionately faint. However that may be, in a
quarter of an hour we were on the road, Mrs. Holden
being also of the party.

Our way skirted the many indentations forming the coast-
line of Boston Bay. This is very beautiful, enclosed by
green hills partially clothed with shea-oak and mallee scrub.
The latter and the gum-trees were in blossom. There were,
indeed, wild-flowers in profusion, but we could not stop to
examine or gather them. Sometimes we ascended to a
considerable height above the sea, sometimes we were

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 179

close to the waves rolling in upon the shore, all seeming
alike to the ponies, who trotted merrily up and down hill
on the well-made road, rejoicing, no doubt, in so speedy a
return home, and little dreaming they would have to be
at Port Lincoln again before the ' Lubra ' should sail. On
the way we met at intervals horsemen riding many a mile
to post and receive letters. The weather had improved
as regards the picturesque, showers alternating with gleams
of sunlight.

Turning somewhat inland as we approached Poonindie,
but while still three miles distant, we entered the domain
assigned to the station by a handsome gate, while another
subsequently admitted us to the enclosure in which the
village stands. Here a mob of merry little urchins, with
black and shining countenances, after having rushed to open
the gate when they saw us approaching, ran after the buggy,
evidently expecting to be taken up. It was the presence
of strangers, we feared, that deprived them of their accus-
tomed treat. As we drove on, the pretty little church
first caught our notice. Close by is Mr. Holden's house,
and that of the agricultural superintendent. These gen-
tlemen, with their families and the schoolmaster, are the
only white members of the little community. The school-
house is near, and round about these larger buildings,
which are interspersed with trees, cluster the neat white
cottages of the natives, the whole surrounding three sides
of an oblong space covered with turf, which forms a
diminutive village green.

Early in the history of South Australia a school for the
aborigines was established in Adelaide, and continued in
operation for some years. The pupils displayed much
aptness for acquiring elementary knowledge, but it was
found that they did not on quitting school take to any
settled occupation. Most of them returned to their wild
life, while the few who hung about the town were shiftless
and destitute, and exhibited in an intensified form the
vices of civilisation. The present Bishop of Perth, West
Australia, Dr. Matthew Hale, a collateral descendant of
the great judge, was at that time Archdeacon of Adelaide.

N 2

1 80 WHAT WE SAW IN A USTRALIA.

Taking great interest in the native school, and deeply
lamenting its failure to reclaim its pupils from savagery,
he cast about for some more permanent method of civilis-
ing them. To provide them with employment and the
means of subsistence, and to remove them both from the
temptations of the town, and from the reach of unreclaimed
natives who would tempt or compel them to return to
their former life, Archdeacon Hale resolved to form them
into an agricultural community, and to establish them in
a district remote from the evils he feared. The form of
government was to be patriarchal, and Christianity its
guiding spirit. Besides aiding it with his fortune and
influence, he resolved, with generous self-devotion, to be
himself the pastor of this humble flock ; and for the greater
part of the period intervening between the foundation of
the mission and his elevation to the See of Perth in 1856,
the Archdeacon and his wife and family dwelt at Poo-
nindie. The life of the white directors of such a settlement
must always be one of much self-sacrifice; but it must
have been especially so in the early days of Poonindie,
before the ordinary comforts of civilised life had been
obtained, and intercourse with the capital was even more
infrequent than at present.

In September 1850, Dr. Hale, bringing with him
eleven aboriginals, five married couples, and a single
man, who had all been educated at the school in Adelaide,
landed on Boston Island. He had chosen this beautiful
spot for his settlement, but want of water obliged him in
a very few weeks to abandon it, and he removed to the
banks of the Tod, where the present little village gradually
arose.

Here a run with about 5000 sheep was purchased by
the Archdeacon. Government added an extensive tract
of land, forming an Aboriginal Reserve ; and the Colonial
Treasury and the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel made important contributions to the funds. Under
the direction of skilled white workmen some of the natives
erected the present buildings, while others were being
instructed in the various duties of the farm, which the

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 181

aborigines usually learn to perform extremely well. A
native school, which had existed for some years in the
Port Lincoln district under a German missionary, Mr.
Schurman, being amalgamated with Poonindie, increased
the number of inmates; while individuals were from
time to time persuaded to leave their tribes and join
the mission. In spite of numerous deaths during its early
existence, the population exceeded sixty when the Arch-
deacon left, and had reached almost a hundred at the
time of our visit, many infants having been born of
late years ; while the deaths, we understand, have much
diminished.

The ex-scholars from Adelaide formed the nucleus of
an educated class ; and one of these, Conwillan, was able,
when the Archdeacon was absent on Sundays at Port
Lincoln, to conduct service in the Mission Church ; and
did so with such propriety that white settlers in the
neighbourhood used regularly to attend. A day-school for
the children was soon established ; classes were formed
for the women ; and the men and older boys who are at
work during the day attend a night-school. The necessity
for amusements was not forgotten ; music was encouraged.
Some of the young men lead the singing at church with
their flutes, while the tones of the concertina and violin
are not unfamiliar in the settlement. Occasionally there
is dancing, and harmless indoor games are indulged in.
Cricket seems for many years to have occupied as impor-
tant a position as at Harrow or Eton ; and the Poonindie
Eleven have been almost invariably victorious over their
white antagonists of Port Lincoln. Sometimes they even
go to Adelaide for a match, when their wives display as
much loving anxiety in the perfection of their " get-up "
for the occasion as any English mother or sister in that
of her special hero at Lord's.

Drinking is strictly forbidden. No drink, of course, can
be obtained in the village, but we believe no Poonindie
native has been known to break the rule when sent to
the township on errands. On the contrary, it is remem-
bered how Conwillan, having according to orders loaded

182 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

his own dray with goods from a coasting vessel, rendered
the like service to a settler whose teamster was lying
intoxicated upon the beach.*

The departure of the Archdeacon was severely felt by
the members of the settlement. Hot only was he dis-
tinguished by unwearied benevolence, but his business
habits and practical knowledge of the details of farming
had greatly promoted the material success of the under-
taking.

A season of much trouble, augmented by severe sick-
ness and mortality, followed his removal ; but all difficulties
seem to have been surmounted, and under the direction of
the trustees of the institution — the Bishop of Adelaide,
Mr. Samuel Davenport, and Mr. Hawkes — and the zealous
care of the resident superintendent, Poonindie has, we
may hope, for several years fulfilled, as a thriving
and happy community, the aspiration of its generous
founder.

Accompanied by the Bishop of Adelaide, the Bishop of
Perth paid a visit, towards the end of 1872, to the scene
of his philanthropic labours. His reception was very
touching. Few only of the aborigines present had dwelt
at Poouindie during his residence there, but those who
had come since recognised in him the friend of their race ;
and all joined in giving him a hearty welcome.

He stayed some days, mingling with them in their various
pursuits. On one occasion all assembled in the school-
room which they had themselves decorated with flowers ;
the purpose of the gathering being to present to the
Bishop a tea-service costing several pounds, purchased with
their own money. The religious services on the Sunday,
in which each Bishop took part, were singularly impres-
sive. On the following morning the whole population
was early astir, and, after a full attendance in the church,

* ' A Visit to Poonindie,' by the Lord Bishop of Adelaide. Printed by
W. K. Thomas, Adelaide, 1873. We have derived most of our informa-
tion concerning the early history of the settlement from this interesting
narrative.

WE A T WE SAW IN A U8TBAL TA. J 83

every one — men, women, and children — hastened, on foot
or in the drays, to the shore to witness the shipping of one
hundred bales of wool, the produce of their own land and
their own labour. Poonindie wool bears a high reputation,
and shipping day is made a red-letter festival in the annals
of the station. On this occasion, moreover, the Poonindie
Eleven were to embark for Adelaide, to play a match with
the pupils of St. Peter's College.*

Many years before our visit to the Southern hemi-
sphere we had heard of Poonindie from the Bishop of
Perth, and when laying out our route we. resolved to
include, if possible, a visit to it in our Australian tour. It
was with intense interest we now found ourselves in its
midst ; and with much gratification we recognised at a
glance an appearance of order, prosperity, and refinement,
superior to anything we had anticipated.

Mrs. Holden employs the young women as domestic
servants, and told us that, with supervision, they do house-
work well. On quitting the buggy at her door, her
maidens quickly seconded her hospitable intentions for our
refreshment, and seemed to find as much amusement and
gratification of curiosity in waiting upon us, as we ex-
perienced in being waited upon by them. A fiuely-grown
young man, called Fred. Foorvinda, was summoned to speak
to us, because he had once accompanied a missionary in a
visit of some days at Hazelwood, and his face quite
blazed with pleasure in hearing we had come thence. He
must have been a peculiarly ingratiating fellow. On his
arrival at Hazelwood the servants would not entertain the
idea of his taking his meals with them, so he was rele-
gated to the verandah. By the next day, however, it was
observed that a place was prepared for him at table.
On the following evening our aunt, happening to find
that her servants were not drinking tea at their usual
hour, enquired the reason, when the answer was — "Oh,

* ' A Visit to Poonindie.' Another match between the same antagonist*
took place in April 1874, at Poonindie, when the aborigines came otf
victorious.

184 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

ma'am, Frederic is not come in yet, and we are waiting
for him."

In consequence of the limited time at our disposal the
school-children were summoned to their classes an hour
earlier in the afternoon than usual. They appeared much
amazed, but did not seem to resent the interruption to
their play, going through their lessons with docility and
sweetness of temper. The muster, however, was very in-
complete. Some of the youngsters may have been beyond
call with their mothers, as several of the women were, we
were told, out fishing — a very favourite occupation. About
a dozen children of all ages assembled in the school-room.
Some of them sang a hymn nicely, and several read in
separate groups. Two little girls of seven and eight read
the parable of the Good Samaritan excellently, and as
though they understood what they were reading. But
a more remarkable performance was that of a lad
who had been at Poonindie only six months, and knew
nothing of reading when he came. He gave us a passage
from Isaiah with fluency and correct emphasis. Although
only fourteen, and not tall for his age, his beard and
whiskers were far advanced, giving him a most strange
appearance. The writing we were shown was excellent,
and most of the writers had attained to a good running
hand. In arithmetic they rarely go beyond the first four
rules.

Besides the permanent inhabitants of the station, we
heard of " wurley-natives," occasional neighbours in fact,
who, while retaining their ordinary mode of life, still hang
about the mission; sometimes, we believe, attending school
and church. Of these, however, we were not aware that
any were present to-day. We went into some of the
cottages, to some of which gardens are attached. They
are humble little thatched dwellings, generally containing
only one room, though this is occasionally divided into two
or more parts by a curtain or other simple means of separa-
tion. We found them extremely clean and tidy ; and the
good fires the natives love to keep — for they are very
sensitive to cold — made them bright and cheerful. The

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

'185

floors are either earthen or paved with horizontal sec-
tions of the trunks of trees. The ratters are usually
bare, but in some we saw ceilings of white calico. In
most the walls are whitewashed, though in some of the
rooms they are covered with engravings from the ' British
Workman ; ' and among these we recognised the portrait
of a justly-revered member of the Society of Friends at
Bristol, the late George Thomas. In one bed-room there
was a toilet-table and looking-glass, and some attempt at
table ornaments. The mistress of each little house
received us with smiles of welcome. One of these, " Amy,'
was in all the first pride of house-keeping, as she had been
married only the week before. Her husband was at work
at a distant part of the station. Our visit to Poonindie
was during recreation time alter dinner, and several of the
men were standing about the green or playing at games.
They were much more shy than the women, and very few
would come near us.

Each married couple has, of course, a cottage to
themselves. The elder boys and unmarried men dwell
together in one or more cottages, according to their
number ; and the unmarried young women of whom there
are just now only four, in a home enclosed in Mr. Holden's
garden. These take it in turn to keep their dwelling in
order ; while a married woman has charge of that appro-
priated to the men. There are several little orpnans,
who occupy another house, under the care of a native
woman.

Many of the inhabitants of Poonindie are half-castes.
These are very intelligent, and some of them are ex-
tremely handsome, though usually their aspect is mourn-
ful. The schoolmaster was absent to-day, and a half-caste
young man was supplying his place. He has a singularly
mild expression of countenance, and is, Mr. Holden saiu,
a thorough Christian. Sometime ago he wished for a
change, and obtained employment at a distant station.
The behaviour of his white fellow-labourers displeased
him, especially their language. One day meeting his
master he told him of their wrong-doing, and asked if he

186 WE AT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

could not prevent it. " No," his employer answered, " the
men used bad language even in his presence, and he
could not stop it. But," he added, " no one need listen
to it." The Poonindie man, however, finding he could
not escape the evil if he remained, preferred to give up
his employment and the good wages he was earning, and
return to the mission station.

The full blacks, while children, are as bright-looking as
half-castes or whites, and the adults at Poonindie looked
quite as intelligent as the majority of our agricultural
class, though with a more child-like expression. They
are rarely handsome ; indeed, excepting always their
glorious eyes and dazzling teeth, they are generally very
ugly. The colour of the skin seems to vary even among
those who have no white blood in their veins, in some
being as black as a well-blacked boot, in others different
shades of brown. The inside of the hand is usually
much paler than the outside. Their hair though inclined
to wave, is not in the least woolly. Like the beards of
the men it is extremely thick, and usually glossy and
jet black.

The Poonindie estate contains now 12,000 acres. A
considerable part is fit only for feeding sheep, of which
there are 10,000 pastured upon it. The remainder is
well cultivated, and produces wheat of high quality. The
settlement is now self-supporting, and may be likened in
many respects to a co-operative farm. The profits, how-
ever, are not directly shared among the workers, as it is
found better to pay them in wages varying of course with
the amount and nature of the work performed. One man,
we were told, earns 25s. a week, but usually they get about
15s. They have in addition their houses rent-free, and
very liberal rations of meat, flour, sugar, &c. Medical
comforts also are supplied when needed. Dress, we be-
lieve, as well as luxuries and little articles of personal
indulgence, they pay for themselves.

Mr. Holden has usually many commissions to execute
for them when he goes to Port Lincoln, and to-day, among
a variety of objects he took from his pocket on reaching

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 187

home, was a bottle of hair-oil, an article much in request
among these dusky beaux and belles. The clothes they
wore were mostly very scanty and humble ; but the
women were all neatly dressed, and, in some instances,
had gowns of a good woollen material, such as our pea-
santry might wear for best. The inhabitants, however,
by no means spend all their money on themselves. We
have mentioned their handsome present to their bene-
factor, the Bishop of Perth. They subscribe annually
10Z. to maintain one Melanesian scholar at the school on
the Isle of Mota, founded by Bishop Patteson, and have
contributed to other charitable objects.

The routine of the day's work is laid out for them. A
bell rings at six a.m., when the men who have charge of
the horses and bullocks water and feed their teams.
Prayers in the church follow at seven, and all residents in
the settlement are expected to attend. After breakfast
the men depart to their farm-work, and the children go to
school. The bell rings at twelve for dinner, and at one
work begins again. It ceases in summer at six, in winter
at five. For evening prayers they assemble again in the
church. At nine the bell rings, when all repair to
Mr. Holden's house to wish him good night, and thence
depart to their 'homes. Every one is supposed to go to
bed, and none are allowed out of doors after nine o'clock ;
but if the married folks remain up within their houses
they are not interfered with.

To maintain so regular a life for a permanence, broken
though it be by holidays and amusements at the station,
by an occasional visit to Port Lincoln, or even to Adelaide,
is not possible with these children of nature, accustomed
perpetually to rove. Now and then an individual will ask
for leave of absence, and this, we believe, is always granted.
Occasionally he seeks employment at another station, but
usually betakes himself to friends dwelling in unrestrained
wildness, and sometimes many months elapse before he
returns ; but we understood no instance has yet occurred
of entire abandonment of civilised life by those who have
passed some years in Poonindie. Their present peaceful

188 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

and industrial existence at the station has not, however,
been established without much toil and disappointment
and patient waiting on the part of their guardians.

The tribes vary in character and habits as much perhaps
as do their languages differ, and doubtless some are far
more easy than others to civilise. But bad as well as
good qualities are found in all, and none seem to be free
from horrible customs which must render close association
with them revolting in the extreme until they have been
induced to abandon them.* Occasionally we heard the
conviction expressed that no real improvement could be
effected, but the speakers had not we had reason to be-
lieve seen the natives at the mission stations, where doubt-
less by far the most favourable impression of them is
received. That they should have been so far converted
from savage ways in the course of a few years as we saw
to be the case at Poonindie, and taught self-maintenance
by labour profitable not only to themselves but to the
country at large, seemed to us not only to encourage but
almost to demand further efforts in their behalf. The
mission station at Point Macleay we have already noticed,
and others exist in different parts of the colony.

Many deputations recently have waited on the Commis-
sioners of Crown lands to ask for aid, including an
increased grant of Native Reserve lands, for the improve-
ment and extension of a mission station at Point Pierce,
on Yorke's Peninsula. One of the speakers urged the
favourable consideration of the subject on Government not
only from benevolent motives, but for the sake of em-
ployers of labour, who would be thankful to obtain such
well-trained and efficient farm servants as Poonindie had
proved the blacks could become. The colony has accepted
assisted immigration, but the sum, 5000/. a year, she has
apportioned to promote it will not bring large numbers to
her shores. Moreover, it may be expected that of the

* A pamphlet, entitled ' The Dieyerie Tribe of the Australian Abo-
rigines,' by Samuel Gason, Police Trooper, Adelaide, Government
Printing Office, 1874, gives much information concerning the natives.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 189

immigrants a considerable proportion will be raised by a
few years of hard work and thrift to the position of
employers of labour themselves. In this capacity the
aborigines are not likely to compete with their white
brethren in any appreciable degree, so that there is
little risk that money and care spent in their education
will add to the number of rival masters, while their value
as servants may possibly be rendered an element in the
prosperity of the country.

Shocking accounts of the ill-treatment of the natives
in Queensland find their way sometimes into South
Australian newspapers, and inquiries led us to fear they
had too much foundation. The blacks in that part of
the continent appear to be more fierce and less tractable
than those in the south ; but we know that where in that
colony they are kindly treated, they are esteemed as
station-servants. If, as would appear to be the case,
such institutions as Poonindie, by increasing our know-
ledge of the nature of the blacks, developing their
higher powers, and promoting good-will between their
race and our own, effect more to protect them from
injustice and cruelty than any police regulations can
achieve ; and if we would not have our national honour
again disgraced by our treatment of a subject people as
it was in the West before we renounced slavery, our
sympathies will be with the promoters of such establish-
ments, and with those who seek to supplement them with
all other influences that can be brought into operation to
the same end.

To what extent these exist in the other colonies we are
not aware. In South Australia the general feeling towards
the blacks is kindly, and substantial proof of it is not
wanting. Besides the large tracts granted in various
localities as Native Reserves, every aboriginal is entitled
to rations of food, and receives also a supply of blankets.
All over the colony residents of suitable position are ap-
pointed to distribute these gifts. The sum expended by
the South Australian Government for them during 1874
amounted to more than 4600/. It is, indeed, found that

190 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

the blankets are a doubtful boon ; the natives thus
supplied having in great degree given up making for
themselves rugs of opossum skins, which are a far better
protection from wet. Those who have not associated
with the whites do not understand that wet blankets and
clothes will give cold ; they continue wearing them when
saturated with rain, allowing them to dry on their persons,
and thus frequently get chest diseases, which are very
fatal to them.

A member of the Cabinet, the Commissioner of Crown
lands, is ex-officio Protector of the Aborigines; and two
Sub-Protectors attached to his department, one for the
northern, the other for the southern portion of the colony,
are employed to watch over their interests and secure
their good treatment, travelling of course from place to
place throughout the country in the performance of their
duties.

Drink is as terrible a snare to the Australian native as
to the Ked Indian. Having once tasted it, he craves for
more, and a very small quantity makes him utterly mad.
It has been constituted an offence against the law to
supply intoxicating liquor to an aboriginal : punishable in
the first instance by fine, varying in amount from 10?. to
100Z., and afterwards by imprisonment. It is, indeed, an
offence difficult to prove, as generally only the evidence
of the recipient of the drink can be obtained. The testi-
mony of an aboriginal is in itself not considered very
trustworthy, and on these occasions it is reluctantly given,
from the fear of cutting off future supplies of his beloved
indulgence. Still every now and then convictions under
this law appear in the newspapers .

We often heard of the wonderful powers of mimicry of
the natives, which they seem specially to enjoy exerting
to imitate the whites; and instances of it were related
to us at Poonindie. It was elsewhere, however, that we
were told of a young native girl, who, in consequence of
the kind interest taken in her by the wife of one of the
Governors of South Australia, had lived for several years
at Government House. She was supposed to be quite

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 191

civilised, but at length she insisted upon returning to her
wild life, and rejoined her tribe in a distant part of the
country. Some time afterwards a gentleman travelling in
the interior came upon a native encampment, and beheld
a group watching, amid roars of laughter, the perform-
ances of a young woman. Her attitudes soon revealed
she was mimicking the Europeans, and so skilful was
she, that he quickly recognised in her representations
ladies of his acquaintance who had been accustomed to
visit at Government House.

Every aboriginal who can prove that he has the imple-
ments and other means necessary for cultivating a section,
can obtain a licence for eighty acres of land, which, though
not freehold, is virtually his own as long as it is kept in
good order. A black woman who marries a white man
may have the same amount for her dower. We did not
understand that black men frequently established their
claim to a licence ; but the following instances were

related to E by Mr. Arthur Blyth. During one of

his many tenures of office when Commissioner of Crown
lands, he received on the same day letters from two

aboriginals (named respectively, as R understood,

Napoleon Bonaparte and Julius Caesar), each asking for a
section of land, on the ground that they were going to
be married, and wished to become farmers. The letters
were so good in style and orthography that Mr. Blyth
suspected they must have been written for the men, and
sent for them, that he might speak to them himself.
Two well-dressed blacks presented themselves, who proved,
Mr. Blyth said, much more intelligent than many whites.
Having satisfied himself not only that they had written
the letters, but that they were justified in applying for
sections, licences were granted them. Another anecdote

K heard to a similar effect. When staying at Port

Elliot with his family, a gentleman had occasion to lay in
a stock of firewood. No labourers were to be found, and he
had to set about splitting up the timber himself. He found
it very hard work, and spying a native, asked him to do it
for him, of course offering payment. But the black was

192 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

unable to comply, his reason being that he had taken a
contract to reap a quantity of wheat, and must look alter
his labourers.

We were heartily sorry when the near approach of the
hour fixed for -the ' Lubra's ' departure compelled a rapid
return to Port Lincoln. Our most kind host had pro-
mised to deposit us on the jetty in time to catch her, and
we had hardly bidden him farewell, and stepped on board,
when she was in motion.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

CHAPTER XL

Port Augusta — Cemetery — A Picture — Goats — The Gaol — Flinders
Range — Haverhill — Bartingunya — Mount Remarkable — Coonatto
— Sheep-shearing — Native Languages.

IT was about four p.m. when we started for Port Augusta,
and we reached our destination, after a pleasant and per-
fectly smooth passage, by noon on August 27th. The hills
on either side of Spencer's Gulf are pretty, some indeed, as
Mount Brown, rising into grandeur ; but they have not the
lovely green of the Mount Lofty Range. Near to Port
Augusta they display a remarkable conformation, being
perfectly flat on the top, as though cut smoothly off.
These hills are usually more or less isolated; some stand
quite alone, and suggest the idea of the beginning of an
embankment for a Cyclopean railway. There are hardly
any signs of habitation along the shores of the gulf, and
we saw but one township during the whole voyage from
Port Lincoln. The water, as Port Augusta is approached,
becomes very shallow, the channel for ships being marked
by buoys. Mangroves conceal the banks.

The town, which is of small extent, is built on a desert
of sand, and reminded us not a little of Ramleh, though
it cannot boast such villa-like houses.

Here we were to engage a carriage to convey us to
Mount Remarkable, and as the journey would occupy so
many hours that it was desirable to start early in the
morning, we had decided to stay to-night at Port Augusta.
We had, consequently, been inquiring particulars of the
hotels, and learnt that they were close to the place of
debarkation. That we might if needful have some one to
ask for advice and help in procuring a carriage, we had

o

194 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

been furnished at Adelaide with a letter of introduction to
a gentleman living here ; and as we drew near, he was
pointed out to us upon the quay. On landing we pre-
sented our letter, which he glanced at, and immediately
turning towards the town asked us to accompany him.
We never doubted that he was leading the way to an
hotel, until he stopped at the gate of a private house,
which he invited us to enter, and then we found that he
had taken it as a matter of course that we should be his
and his wife's guests. There was illness in the house, and
we objected that so unexpected a visit would be trouble-
some. But no objections availed. We were assured our
visit was not unexpected, for that the spare chamber was
always prepared for the arrival of the boat ; and, in fine, to
the hotel we were not to be allowed to go. Our gain in
every way was great, and we were especially grateful to
Australian hospitality when we learned, later in the day,
that the inn we should have stayed at was so full we could
not have had a bedroom to ourselves. For several strangers
to share one is not unusual, but we were never reduced to
this discomfort, though to-night we had a narrow escape.

In Adelaide we had heard the climate of Port Augusta
spoken of as the ne plus ultra of wretchedness. Rain is
very rare, and there is hardly any vegetation. The least
wind raises the loose sand, while a strong one so fills the
air with its particles, that objects a few yards distant
become invisible, and houses have to be tightly closed,
and every chink filled up, to keep out the dust. We
were, however, fortunate in our weather. The sun shone
from a cloudless sky ; the day was perfectly calm and the
air exquisitely pure, and so balmy that summer seemed
to have arrived.

There are no good springs, and the rarity of rain
prevents it supplying their place ; so that until an aque-
duct was constructed to bring water from the hills, seven-
teen miles distant, the want of it was severely felt. It is
now very good, and sufficiently abundant to be sold by
Government at 1». per hogshead ; the aborigines being
permitted to have it free of charge.

WE A T WE SAW IN A US TEA LI A. 195

There is little to be seen at Port Augusta. Perhaps
the cemetery is the only point of possible attraction. It
lies half-a-mile or so distant, behind a ridge of sand
which encompasses the town. We walked to it in the
afternoon. Although it has not been many years in
existence, already several tombs — some apparently of
no mean height — are buried by the drifting sand, while
others are fast being covered. A considerable space
has been enclosed, and, in spite of great difficulty in
getting plants to grow, and their inevitable destruction
at an early date by the all-enveloping enemy, an attempt
has been made to decorate some of the graves with flowers.
One only of these was flourishing, the Clianthus Dam-
pierii, so named after Dampier, who discovered it in 1699,
on the islands off the north-west coast of Australia. It
is also known as the " Flower of the Desert," and as the
" Sturt-pea " — Captain Sturt having been the first explorer
who noticed it on the mainland. The blossoms grow in
clusters, the size of a man's hand, and in their form and
colour always suggested to us the idea of an enraged
insect, with a scarlet body and black head. The masses
of flowers on the plant before us, which covered many
square feet of ground, was a splendid sight The clianthus,
ot which there are many varieties, is cultivated in gardens
with more or less success, but we never saw it approach
in luxuriance this specimen, which had evidently found its
appropriate soil. It abounds in the neighbourhood we
were told, covering not square feet but acres of ground.

Not only the climate of Port Augusta is abused for its
aridness, but the locality for its ugliness ; yet that after-
noon we beheld a landscape that would have made a
gorgeous picture. A dip in the sand-ridge formed a frame
to the scene of the richest orange colour. Through this we
saw, some twenty miles to the east, bathed in mauve, the
Flinders Range, from which Mount Brown, of peculiarly
majestic form, rose to a height of more than 3000 feet.
Over the plain, at its base, spread the delicate bluish-
green hue of the salt-bush, varied here and there by a
darker shade where the gum-tree grew in masses. In the

0 2

WHAT WE SA W IN AUSTRALIA.

foreground was the tawny sand ; and over all the glorious
sunset sky.

Hitherto there had been no animation in the scene ; but
now across the ridge, while the after-glow declined to dusk,
came trooping home with tinkling bells a flock of goats,
two hundred or more, of all colours and sizes. Mounted
on some of the largest, so big and shaggy that they looked
like Shetland ponies, were the goatherds — lads who collect
them from their owners in the morning and bring them
back at night. By the time we reached the township,
they had dispersed to their homes, and it seemed as
though each house owned several. There is no food for
cows in the neighbourhood, and they can only.be kept by
costly stall-keeping. Our friends have one, but they are
very rare. Goat's milk is not used in that form only, but
is also made into butter, which looks like lard but tastes
pleasantly, having none of the strong flavour of the milk.

August 28th. Our host engaged a carriage for us last
night, and made every arrangement for our comfort in the
drive of forty-two miles we were to accomplish to-day.
With great regret we bid farewell to the friends who had
converted our necessary halt at Port Augusta to a pleasant
visit, and started between nine and ten a.m.

The first objects of interest on our way were large
waggons laden with wool coining to the port to be em-
barked for England. During the wool season there are
usually two or three large ships at a time loading, but
none had yet arrived, though in the ' Lubra ' we had
overtaken one slowly making its way up the gulf. These
waggons brought so early a clip, that they must have
come from a station considerably to the north, shearing
not having begun so far south as this neighbourhood.
They were drawn by horses, indicating that they had
travelled by a good road, as where the road is bad bul-
locks are employed. We had now reached the region of
"natural" roads — the tracks, namely, of travellers who
have made a route from place to place by picking it out
wherever the ground was sufficiently firm. These are.
often perfectly smooth, and much pleasauter to drive-

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRA LI A. 1 97

over than the best metalled roads. When, however, land
is fenced in, a process now going on extensively through
all the settled parts of the colony, and vehicles are thereby
limited to a narrow space, the natural road is often spoiled
by the increased traffic and the impossibility of turning
aside to fresh ground if the beaten track gets too much
worn. Then metalling becomes necessary. This, however,
is often not applied, and you have to struggle through a
swamp ; or stones so huge are laid down, that you cross
with a series of bumps, full of peril to the springs of your
carriage and to your own bones if you be not on your
guard.

Three miles from Port Augusta we stopped before an
isolated building which looks as if it had been dropped by
accident on the plain. On its gates are inscribed the words,
" Her Majesty's Gaol," and it is one of the four or five pro-
vincial prisons of South Australia. It contains one very
large cell, or, to speak more accurately, a comfortable room
for women, and five cells for men. One is marked " Abori-
ginals." To-day there were no female prisoners, but five
males were present. One, a white, had this morning been
brought in on a charge of murder ; a young man with by
no means an evil countenance, but the crime he is sus-
pected of committing was so cold-blooded, and the motive
apparently so sordid, that the culprit, whoever he is, must
be a heartless wretch.* A second white was undergoing a
short sentence, but for what offence we did not hear.
There was a Hindoo under punishment for ill-treating his
wife, and two blacks, father and SOD, were under sentence
for six months for sheep-stealing. The cells are all large,
boarded, and exquisitely clean. When the number of men
in gaol exceeds five, three are put in a cell together. A
new wing is being built for female prisoners, when they
will be lodged separately.

Flowers and vegetables flourished in a spacious court
within the walls, and, partly no doubt owing to the
brilliant weather, the whole building had an invitingly

* The prisoner was cou victed of the murder and hanged.

198 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

cheerful appearance. The rations are as liberal as else-
where ; and water is supplied to the prison by the same
aqueduct which brings it to Port Augusta. No hard
labour is done here, the governor employing his prisoners
as best he may. Three of them were cutting up wood
outside the walls when we arrived, under watch of the
warder. He had no visible arms, but we understood that
he carried a revolver in his pocket. Attempt to escape
would be visited with a sentence of five years at the Labour
prison, and this the governor considers sufficient to prevent
the offence. Former prisoners we were told often get into
gaol again ; indeed it did not seem to us to be considered
the discipline should even aim at preventing relapse.

Continuing our route across the plain which stretches
from Port Augusta to the Flinders Eange, we were in the
midst of the salt-bush of which the colour was so lovely
last evening. The plants which are from one to two feet
high, are when seen individually insignificant in hue, but
the foliage is delicate in form. It affords excellent food
for sheep, who grow quite fat upon it, and cattle will eat
it too when no grass is to be had. We saw an abundance
of small wild-flowers, among them a beautiful little ever-
lasting, like a long-petalled daisy, sometimes white and
sometimes mauve.

The Kange is crossed at Horrocks Pass, a natural opening
which has been widened here and there but is still so nar-
row in some places that two carriages can scarcely pass.
Occasionally the rocks rise perpendicularly on either side,
but their height is not great, and though picturesque the
pass is by no means equal to some of the gorges in the
Mount Lofty Kange. During the day we frequently saw
large hawks hovering about of a pale brown colour. On
the eastern side of Horrocks Pass we found ourselves in a
grassy glen where green parroquets were plentiful, and
still descending reached Beautiful Valley. Here a sheep
station belonging to Mr. Samuel Davenport is the only
house for several miles.

Our road had now turned southwards and was almost
parallel to the Kange, skirting a plain twenty or thirty miles

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 199

across, and of much greater extent in length. This is
encompassed by hills, rising occasionally to the dignity of
mountains, and has the appearance of a lake whence the
water has escaped. The trees became more abundant and
the grass richer as we advanced. A strip of cultivated land
three or four miles wide along the base of the mountains
is very fertile, but the remainder of the plain is occupied
as sheep-run. Salt-bush and a variety of scrub plants give
it an air of infertility, but probably when tilled it will
become, or large portions of it will become, as productive
as the land which has been brought into cultivation.
Cultivation and enclosing go together, and the natural
road had become in some parts a bog through which our
horses dragged us with slow and toilsome steps. We had
regained firmer footing when a carriage approaching from
the opposite direction halted for parley, and we found that
Mr. Pearson had driven some miles to meet us. Trans-
ferring ourselves to his waggonette and leaving our
luggage in our own vehicle to follow by the shortest route,
he took us by a somewhat circuitous road through lovely
scenery, and brought us to Haverhill by dusk. Our
belongings had meanwhile arrived, and the horses who
had not baited since leaving Port Augusta, were, our
driver said, to return to Melrose, as the township at the
foot of Mount .Remarkable is called, before resting,
making the total of forty-five miles for their day's work.
They did not seem at all tired by their run or distressed
by their abstinence.

The massive form of Mount Remarkable, generally
called " the Mount," (as is often the township of Mel-
rose also), is not unlike the Wrekin from this point
of view, and is a part of the Flinders Range, which here
trends somewhat suddenly westward ; and seen from the
east or south is from its conformation and superior height
a striking object for very many miles. It is thickly
wooded almost to the summit. On this side it is obvious
there has been a landslip, and the debris form miniature
mountains 200 or 300 feet high, now overgrown with ver-
dure. The high road to Adelaide passes close to us on

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

the right, its great width marked by fencing on either
side, and its course for a long distance indicated by
the tall telegraph poles, but in no other way certainly
fulfilling our notion of a highway, for grass flourishes all
across, and trees stand in its midst at their own sweet will.
To drive upon it affords ample exercise, not to the horses
only, but to the occupants of the carriage also, who alike
in their efforts and in their failures to preserve a firm and
upright attitude may go through almost every variety of
gymnastic position.

Sometimes we entered enclosures by the slip panel. The
turf is delightful, but every now and then a winding creek
has to be driven not over but through, and when there hap-
pens to be a steep bank on either side, the feat certainly
looks perilous. But our hostess as charioteer, her carriage
and her ponies, were all equal to the occasion ; and though
at each fresh crossing we privately thought when at the
bottom of the first bank, " This time we shall stick fast,"
the ponies always pulled us gallantly up on the other side.

The Iguana, which inhabits wooded districts, is common
on the Mount and in its neighbourhood. This creature, a
large lizard three or four feet long, goes far it is said to
realise in appearance the mythical dragon, but it is very
harmless, being guilty of no greater offence than devour-
ing all the eggs it can find, of the domestic hen as well as
of other birds. It is indeed an extremely timid creature,
and if alarmed, takes refuge by running up a tree if a tree
be at hand. In the absence of such shelter, it may in its
blind fright we were told seek protection by running up a
human being — a piece of information which somewhat
diminished the pleasure of our woodland walks. The
Iguanas are a favourite food with the aborigines, who eat
many kinds of reptiles including snakes.

We greatly wished to climb the Mount, for the ascent,
though extremely toilsome from the absence of any path,
is in dry weather possible, and the view from the summit
must be fine ; but there was much heavy rain during our
stay in the neighbourhood, and we were assured it would
l>e impracticable to cross the swollen creeks, and to find

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 201

•

a footing on the slippery slopes. An unusual coating of
snow appeared one morning on its upper portion, but it
had vanished before ten o'clock.

Before we left Adelaide our intended visit to Mount Re-
markable had become known to the relatives of a lady
whose acquaintance we had already made, and on arriving
at Haverhill we found an invitation awaiting us to visit
them at their large sheep-station thirty miles distant
The 1st of September was at hand when the shearing season
begins at Coonatto, and to see something of this phase of
one of the most important of Australian industries was
our great desire. It was arranged, therefore, that we
should go on Saturday, August 30th. We had observed
two livery-stables in Melrose, and proposed to hire a car-
riage from one of them, but our kind hosts would not hear
of it, and sent us in their own, which was to remain and'
bring us back on the following Tuesday.

Our route — a natural road — lay across the plain east-
ward from the Flinders Range, bare-looking to our eyes,
but good for sheep-runs. During the last few years these
have been very generally fenced-in, and where so enclosed
are called paddocks ; but a paddock may contain thirty
square miles or more. Thus the fences are seldom visible,
and the country impresses one as wholly wild. The sheep
always remain in the paddocks, except at shearing time,
and shepherds are dispensed with. Boundary riders have
superseded them, whose duty it is to ascertain the well-
being of the flocks, and lo see that the fences are m
repair.

A few dingoes still remain in the hills, but strychnine
smeared on pieces of meat dropped about to tempt them,
of which it was not pleasant to hear, is hastening their
destruction. They do little mischief now, and there are
no other enemies from which the sheep need protection.
No water has to be provided in winter, but in the hot, dry
summer it is necessary to do so. Small reservoirs are con-
structed in the paddocks, the beds of which the sheep are
made to puddle themselves by being driven across over
and over again. The question had arisen, we were told,

202 WHA T WE SAW IN A USTRA LI A.

whether having to seek food and water, instead of being
led to it, does not interfere with their thriving, and some
authorities maintain that they would produce more wool
and meat if they had no anxiety about ways and means.

What struck us much on our first sight of the large flocks
was the very small space they occupy in the landscape. We
might be almost close to one numbering some thousands,
and it would look a mere handful. We hoped to see kan-
garoos and emus in our drive, but an occasional wallaby
and one or two wild turkeys were all that repaid our anxious
watch. The wild turkeys are stately creatures, and move
with a dignified gait, looking from side to side at every
step. They are exceedingly shy, so that, if they became
aware of our approach, they spread their wings and slowly
fled away ; but once or twice we came so very near to
them unperceived that we concluded they detect the pre-
sence of an enemy by smell, and that they must then have
been to windward of us.

We stopped to rest the horses at Spring Creek. Al-
though seventeen miles from Coonatto, the kitchen-garden
of the station is here, and exceptionally rich is the station
in having a kitchen-garden at all: there is rarely labour or
water to spare for the cultivation of one, and fresh vege-
tables are almost unknown in the bush. The gardener at
Spring Creek is an aboriginal, while his wife is white.

A large station may be said to constitute a village in
itself. The residence of the proprietor corresponds with
the squire's house. The inn is represented by Bachelors'
Hall, as the building is called where all travellers who
apply receive board and lodging for the night. At some
stations, indeed, this hospitable practice is being discon-
tinued, owing to the increasing number of travellers —
his Bachelors' Hall cost one squatter, we heard, 500?.
a year — but in such cases a real inn is permitted to be
opened. The hospitality essential in the early life of the
colony, when no shelter could be obtained but at the
sparsely scattered stations, has inevitably led to some
abuse, and there is now a class called " loafers," or, as we
designate them in England, " tramps," who live upon it,

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRALTA. 203

—wandering from station to station at their will, and
doing no work for themselves or any one else.* Individuals
among them are wicked as well as idle, and will do a
squatter a mischief if refused bed and board. Bush-fires
are sometimes attributed to them, and it is said that if a
lighted pipe or lucifer is not available, the incendiary will
accomplish his purpose by so placing a bit of polished tin
or broken bottle that it will concentrate the sun's rays
and act as a burning glass. Such a fragment, however, it
must be remembered, might without evil intention be left
in this fatal position. When gentlemen avail themselves
of the Hall they are usually invited to the squatter's own
house, and if accompanied by ladies, this is, we under-
stand, invariably the rule.

The staff of a large station requires many houses for
its accommodation. Some of these will, of course, gather
round the main buildings, but some may be scattered over
the estate often exceeding in size our largest counties
(Coonatto, we believe, equals South Wales in extent),
forming little hamlets many miles away. Besides the
ordinary farm servants, there will be a horse-breaker (for
of the horses on a station the name is legion), a carpenter,
a blacksmith, and perhaps a saddler. There is sometimes
a church, probably there will be a school-house and a
schoolmaster to teach the children of all the employes,
and usually there are two or three sub-managers. These,
however, generally dwell at a distance from the head sta-
tion, each presiding over a minor establishment. The

* In Victoria they are known by another name. " A ' skull-banker ' is a
species of the genus loafer, half-higliwayman, half-beggar. He is a haunter
of stations, and lives on the squatters, amongst whom he makes bis circuit,
affecting to seek work, and determining not to find it. A dozen or so of
these skull-bankers were some time back congregated on a run of Mr.
Clarke's, and when I, in the Supreme Court, asked a witness (a resi-
dent on the station) who these meu were, he justified their presence there
by saying, • they were Mr. Clarke's friends.' But the peculiarity of this
friendship was that, whenever Mr. Clarke made his appearance at the
station, the whole of these guests used to acknowledge the arrival of their
patron and benefactor by taking to night, and hiding themselves in a dry
creek." Victoria, Retrospective and Prospective : A Lecture by the Hon.
A. Michie. Melbourne, W. Fairfax & Co., 1866.

204 WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA,

wool-sheds are conspicuous objects, and the kitchen for
preparing the men's food is also an important building.

Thus, on approaching Coonatto we saw dwellings and
outhouses in various directions. Two or three old stage-
coaches appeared in the background, in which many of
the shearers had that afternoon arrived. Some come in
their own " traps," or on their own horses. The most
important business of the year was at hand, and groups
of men hung about idle, just now enjoying a short respite
from very hard work. Shearing pursues a southerly
course, following the milder weather of spring, and probably
many of these men had already been employed on stations
further north, just as after their six weeks at Coonatto
they would have successive engagements " down south."

We now entered a neat enclosure, and leaving the
church and schoolhouse on our left, soon found ourselves
at a handsome gate, the entrance to a small garden, a rare
adornment at a station, and always, we understood, to be
attributed to the presence of a lady. Everything wore a
trim English air within and without the house, and those
who think station life means a log hut, a bullock dray to
travel by, and a menu of mutton, damper, and tea, would
have had difficulty in realising their position, or indeed
in believing themselves out of England, finding them-
selves in fact surrounded by the comforts, and leading
the life of an English country house. The home-mail had
arrived that morning, and the interval between afternoon-
tea and dinner was pleasantly spent in looking over the
' Times ' and ' Punch,' and the various new publications it
had brought.

Our hostess was busy with her Sunday School next
morning, and played the harmonium in church, for the
choir whom she herself trains; and our host read the
service and a sermon. The afternoon was spent in a visit
to the wool-sheds, where everything had been prepared
for work to begin on Monday morning ; and in a ramble
to a pretty bit of hilly scrub, overgrown with a variety of
lovely flowers.

Tiie picturesque Range, bounding the plain to the east,

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 205

is not far from Coonatto, which itself is at a considerable
elevation above the district we had traversed the pre-
ceding day. Looking across this the Flinders Range lay
stretched before us, while conspicuous among its lesser
neighbours, Mount Remarkable fully vindicated its name.

A creek finds its way from the hills in the rear, past
Coonatto, to the plain. It is of great value for it rarely
becomes dry, but its water is slightly brackish. This quality
seems, however, favourable to the gum-trees; for very fine
specimens grow along its winding banks and in its very bed.
The station, however, does not depend upon the creek
for water. Some tanks, we understood, there had always
been, but in the terrible drought of 1867-8-9, all supplies
fell far short, and our host showed us vast additional
tanks which have since been constructed ; sufficient, it is to
be hoped, to prevent the possibility of a recurrence of such
suffering and loss as were then experienced. In the evening
there was again service, attended by a larger number of
station hands than had been present in the morning, and
by some of the shearers (who had probably been in their
beds in the early part of the day), so that the little church
was nearly full.

Our visit to the wool-sheds, where the shearing and all
subsequent manipulation of the wool takes place, was post--
poned until Monday afternoon, that the men might have
got into the full swing of work. Meanwhile we went to
the schoolhouse. The number of pupils present was small,
partly owing to the demand for all available help just now
when the pressure may be compared to that of the Post
Office on Valeutine's-day, or of carriers at Christmas time ;
partly to the distance at which many of the children live
being too great for them to come to this school. That all
may have instruction the master receives his scholars at the
head station on three days in the week, and visits those
who are remote on the other two.

While waiting until the shearers had finished their
afternoon tea, we visited their kitchen. Here a cook and
his " mate " are kept constantly employed to satisfy the
eighty-four mouths, for whose sufficient supply they are

206 WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA.

responsible. The shearers breakfast on mutton, tea, and
bread ; dine, at twelve or one, on mutton, tea, and bread ;
have tea with plain cake about four ; and sup on mutton,
tea, and bread at seven. Such is the regulation diet, but
shearers at Coonatto share the blessing of the kitchen-
garden, and have, sometimes, vegetables in addition.

The cook was groaning under his labours. He told us
he had cooked three-and-twenty sheep since Saturday
afternoon, and that three and three-quarters were at that
moment roasting for the men's suppers. Huge loaves, and
tea by the bucketful he had supplied in proportion. Our
host tried to comfort him with the assurance that appetites
are always keen on arrival but decline in the course of a few
days. This may be in part the effect of the men's employ-
ment, as the constant stooping and the strong effluvium
from the animals renders it, we have been told, an un-
healthy one. From the kitchen we went to the dormitories
close by. The men sleep on shelves like ship's bunks.
Each brings his own blankets, supplemented sometimes by
handsome opossum rugs. The shearers include men of
various classes and callings, for the wages are good and
other employment is sometimes thrown up to obtain them.
The steadiest are small farmers, many of whom are Ger-
mans. At this season they can be absent from their
agricultural operations, and as shearers earn capital for
the purchase or improvement of their land. The men
are paid by the piece — that is by the fleece. Seventy-five
are a good average day's work, but a skilful shearer will
take off a hundred, for which, at the present rate of pay-
ment— high this year owing to the scarcity of labour — he
will receive a sovereign. The sheds in which the shearing
takes place are provided, at short intervals, with doors on
one side opening into little pens where hang pots of tar
and kerosine, of ominous import to the sheep did they
understand their signification. In each shed is a long row
of shearers.

As many sheep as are likely to be disposed of during the
day are brought in over-night from the paddocks and
enclosed in an adjoining large pen. Theuce they are

WHA T WE SA W IN A USTRALIA. 207

transferred — often they have to be dragged and pulled to
make them go the right way — one by one to the shearers,
as these are ready for them. The poor animal is then
forced on to its haunches and kept down by the operator's
knee. Generally he becomes very quiet, but sometimes
in his discomfort or fright, he quivers and wriggles and
then the shears make many a snip or even gash in the
skin. Death is occasionally the result when a sudden
movement of the head causes the shears to cut the throat.
The cuts are a ghastly sight, but they become less frequent
as the shearer's hand gets into practice.

In about ten minutes the operation is over, and the
forlorn, milk-white, and trembling creature, reduced to
half its size, is hurried through the little door, of which
there is one opposite each shearer, into the pen to which it
leads. Here boys standing ready with pot and brush,
dab tar or kerosine on its bleeding wounds which thus
treated heal, we were told, very rapidly, and turn each
sheep into a large inclosure, whence they soon regain their
paddocks, to be no more disturbed till shearing time
comes round again. The weather is often still cold enough
when the fleece is removed for its loss to entail much
suffering, and if the sheep are detained in a fold they fre-
quently die ; but if they are allowed to return to " the open,"
A\ here they can choose spots sheltered from the wind, they
live and soon recover their good looks.

The fleece comes off in one piece, looking like a woven
article of very loose texture. Each as it is taken from the
sheep's back is laid out smoothly upon a table formed of
iron rails, and the dirty edges are picked off and thrown
upon the ground to be eventually gathered together and
sent to a wool-washer who cleanses them before they are
packed for the English market. The fleeces are rolled up
separately and carried to the sorting tables, where the wool
from sheep of different ages and races is sorted previous
to packing — each kind being packed in separate sacks.

From the sorting- tables the fleeces are carried to the
packing-shed ; there, by the help of machinery, they are
pressed into sacks, and the sacks are then themselves

208 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

heavily pressed and bound with iron bands, till they become
hard cubes. This process is called "dumping." It is per-
formed only at large stations ; small establishments do not
possess the necessary machinery, and their " dumping" is
done by their agent at the port previous to shipping the
wool.

The last process is to mark outside each sack the age
and race of the. sheep whose wool it contains — circum-
stances which decide its value ; lambs' wool commands
by far the highest price, but the quantity procured from
each animal is very small. It remains now only to impress
upon the sack its number and the station-brand, and it is
ready to be conveyed to the port for shipping. The wool
from Coonatto, as from a vast extent of surrounding
country, goes to Port Augusta.

Our delightful visit over, we returned to Haverhill on
the 2nd of September, leaving Coonatto in sunshine, but
encountering rain long before the termination of our
journey. It continued to pour and to blow, with few
intervals, for several days. One morning, soon after the
weather had begun to improve, the Bishop of Adelaide
arrived on a visit. He was making a pastoral tour, driving
thirty or forty miles a day, and halting in the evening at
convenient stations. Two nights previously, however, dark-
ness fell before his journey was accomplished, and neither
he or his coachman could discern the track. To travel on
in the hope of reaching their destination without it, was
too likely to lead them far astray and end in their being
" bushed," to be prudent. The only alternative was to
stay where they were. They were in a wooded district,
but not far from open country, where there would be no
timber available for fuel ; so the Bishop determined to
"••amp out" at once, where a good fire could be made.
Not having anticipated such a necessity, however, he was
wholly unprovided for it, except that he had a waterproof-
sheet with him besides carriage-rugs, and .his coachman
had one stray orange in his pocket and a single lucifer-
match. Happily the latter sufficed to light one of the
carriage-lamps, by aid of which a bonny heap of logs was

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 209

kindled ; the orange was shared between the two belated
travellers, the horses were picketed, and spreading the
sheet on the ground close to the fire and beneath the
buggy whose seats were robbed of their cushions to sub-
stitute a mattress, and covering themselves with their rugs
they slept soundly ; and happily suffered no subsequent
ill effects, although the Bishop numbers, we believe, more
than threescore years and ten. They rose at dawn, re-
found their track, and soon discovered that they had passed
the night within two miles of the station where they
were to have slept! To be thus utterly lost, however,
when close to one's goal, is not rare. An experienced
bushman told us that, failing to reach before nightfall
the house where he intended to stay, though believing it
must be nigh at hand he yet did not venture to seek it,
and next morning found he had spent the intervening
hours at its very gate.

There is a large church at Melrose, but the township
possesses no clergyman. Mr. Pearson, and other gentlemen
living in the neighbourhood, take it in turn to read the
prayers and a sermon. Each chooses his favourite author,
and much variety in the views expounded from Melrose
pulpit is said to be the result. But the Bishop, of course,
conducted the service and preached on the Sunday he was
at Haverhill. The attendance was crowded, for not only
were the usual church-goers there, but the Wesleyan
minister had closed his chapel and brought his congrega-
tion, no mean contingent, to hear the Bishop.

A visit had been for some days arranged to Bartigunya,
the residence of Dr. Moorhouse — a near neighbour, for he
lived only five miles off — and on September 8th we all
started, in spite of showery weather. It was a lovely drive
among the Flinders Range, up hill and down dale, and
through many a creek. The house, surrounded by a gar-
den bright with spring flowers, nestles in a fairy-like glen

amidst lofty hills. From the summit of one of these E

obtained a view, when a momentary opening in the clouds
bathed the distant plain in sunshine, which she considered
repaid her for the ascent and a thorough wetting besides.

p

210 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

Several years ago Dr. Moorhouse was Protector of the
Aborigines, and during his intercourse with them learnt
the language of the Murray Blacks. Of this he prepared
the Vocabulary and outline of its grammatical structure,
from which we have previously quoted. The language, he
1old us, contains sixteen letters, which do not include "s,"
a sound apparently unknown to the aboriginals. Suffixes
are very frequent; the termination "ilia" to their words,
so often employed, signifies " on the," or " at the." The
repetition of a word (common in many of the native lan-
guages) intensifies its signification, of which there is an
c xample in the name of a tree, the Bunya Bunya.

Another drive was to Willowie, a station near Melrose,
belonging to Mr. J. H. Angas, where a pretty new resi-
dence, like a little English villa, has lately been built.
Here we were to see more shearing, but heavy rain the day
before had wetted the sheep, and the shearers were com-
pelled to lie idle till the sun should have dried the fleeces.
The manager showed us the sheds, which are new and very
extensive, and then proposed we should pay a visit to a
native encampment. There are several wurleys at Wil-
lowie ; the men do odd work on the run, and the women
are employed to wash by the wives of the white servants.
There were not many at home when we reached their little
Dutch-oven-shaped huts ; but in two or three some women
and children were crouching.

In one wurley, afternoon tea was being discussed. A
very handsome young woman, "Mrs. James" (the only
handsome female aboriginal we have seen), had dropped in
from a neighbouring wurley to share it ; but both she and
her hostess were too shy to say much to us. She, being
pretty, turned away her face, which the other, who was
ugly, did not; and both laughed. The master of the
wurley, Mr. Paul Pry, lounged up to do his share of the
honours — a remarkably well-grown and almost handsome
man, very black, but civilized enough, we were told, to
get very drunk. There had been a drunken row at the
Mount among the natives the preceding Saturday, at which
one whom we saw to-day had got his head broken, and

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 211

looked very miserable in consequence. A waddy lay in

the wurley, which K asked to look at. She would

have liked to buy it, but hesitated to offer money, lest it
should get converted into drink and cause row number
two. Our friend, the manager, however, finding she wished
to possess it, assured us there was no need for payment,
and turning to Paul Pry, asked if he would give it to the
lady. " Oh ! yes," he answered, with native nonchalance,
and displayed his brilliant white teeth in a broad grin
when we told him we should take it to England. It is a
club, about 2£ feet in length, thicker at one end than the
other, and has a rude pattern burnt into it by means of a
heated wire. The thinner termination is finished with a
nob, and is the part held in the hand. It is made of mallee,
a hard, heavy wood, and would give a deadly blow ; indeed,
probably it has done so already more than once. The
native women are reputed, poor things, to possess an inti-
mate acquaintance with the battering powers of the waddy.
It is said, indeed, that one method of courtship among the
blacks is for the suitor to seek the damsel he thinks of
wedding, waddy in hand, wherewith to belabour her head.
The longer she can bear the treatment the higher she
rises in her admirer's estimation. S , who as a natu-
ralist, examines the skulls of aborigines whenever he
can procure any, told us that he usually finds those of
women cracked in various places.

In another hut we saw a little half-caste child and a
black gin of thirteen or so — the only children we met
with ; they are very few and far between, except at the
mission stations. There was a fire outside this wurley,
and also outside Paul Pry's. Inside there is no room for
fire, and the inmates must lie very close to keep under
shelter.

p 2

21 2 WE A T WE SA W IN A USTRALIA.

OHAPTEK XII.

The Areas — Laura — Jamestown — Wildongaleach — The Burra — Hill
river Farm — Clare — Koman Catholic College at Sevenhills — Auburn
— Saddle-worth — Kapunda — Angaston — Eden Vale — Gumeracha
Gorse — Home.

THE mail passes the gate of Haverhill, and had it been
a comfortable mode of travelling, nothing could have been
more convenient than to step into it there, and let it
convey us to the station at Farrell's Flat where it would
transfer passengers and letters to the Northern Railway.
But, warned to the contrary, we had to arrange differently ;
and as we wished to visit the celebrated copper-mines at
the Burra, ninety miles distant, we telegraphed thither for
a carriage to fetch us. To our surprise — for we had been
assured we should be supplied without difficulty — a return
telegram informed us none could be sent. A friend in
the neighbourhood now offered to lend one if horses could
be found, and negotiations were opened with the livery
stables already mentioned ; but either the horses or the
driver were unsatisfactory to our host, and he would not
allow us to start with them. Eventually he insisted on
our again using his equipage, which would take us our
first day's journey to Laura. Although we should find
it easy to hire one there to convey us to the Burra, we
should not have been permitted to do so, but that a
few days later Mr. Pearson had to drive down to Adelaide,
where he was about to deliver a course of lectures, and
his carriage and horses could not have returned to Haver-
hill in time had they taken us further.

Early in the fine afternoon of the llth September, we
wish our kind hosts farewell, but hope to meet again soon

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 213'

in town ; and with sorrow turn our faces from the grand
old Mount, wondering if the chances of life will ever
bring that lovely view full of pleasant associations before
us again ! The distance to Laura is twenty-six miles, and
our course is almost due south. For several miles we
drive over a run of flat but prettily-wooded country, among
rich grass, and winding creeks overhung by the fine gum
trees which grow in their beds, while behind us is the
noble background of Mount Eemarkable, visible most of
the way. Approaching Charlton, a solitary house now,
but where mining has been attempted and the green hill-
side is disfigured with the ruins of an engine-house, store,
and heaps of spoil, we look down a broad valley, well-
wooded, and enclosed on one side by bold, rocky hills.
A wide creek flows round their feet. Luxuriant grass, on
which cattle are feeding, covers the flat bed of the valley,
and over all is the mellowed afternoon sunshine. As we
drive quickly past we pick out half-a-dozen sites on the
high ground for country mansions, each separated from
the others by woody glades and sweeping lawns. Near
.Charlton are the W (Doubleyou) Waterholes, the unro-
mantic name of some pretty bends in the creek, where
water is found throughout the driest season.

Soon we pass the little encampment of a Government
surveyor : — three tents, which are perfectly weather-proof
we are told, fires outside, men cooking, horses picketed
or hobbled near, &c. Our driver says they sometimes
stay three months in one spot, and when the spot is so
lovely as this, we think they must lead a very enviable
life. New roads are being surveyed, and new areas too ;
the latter much to the disgust of the squatters. For
several miles before reaching Laura we drive between
vast fields of wheat, all enclosed with post and rail, and
dotted at intervals of a mile or less with farm-houses ; some
mere hovels of mud and canvas, others, just built, of stone.

We are on one of the areas where, three years ago at
farthest, all was sheep-run and not a house to be seen,
except one here and there miles apart for the station-
servants. Squatters hold their sheep-runs on lease only,

214 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

and these are liable at any time to be surveyed and
thrown open to sale for agricultural purposes. The land
is then purchasable from Government in blocks of eighty
acres. A limit has been placed to the number of blocks
one person may buy, the object of which is to prevent capi-
talists creating a monopoly by buying largely. That
number is eight, or 640 acres, making one square mile.
This regulation is sometimes evaded by the capitalist
employing a " dummy," i. e., buying land in another
person's name. Occasionally a dummy declines to yield
the land to the real purchaser, who finds it extremely
difficult to turn him out. But measures are being taken,
we understand, to prevent such frauds.

Under the present land law the very heart of a rim
may be selected for purchase, and the Free Selector,
as he is called, is extremely unpopular with the squatters.
To prevent so unwelcome a neighbour coming, they
sometimes themselves purchase tempting morsels of
the vast tracts they hold on lease. Credit for a fixed
number of years, and on certain safe conditions, is given
to buyers of land for a portion of the price. Residence in
person or by deputy is required from the credit-purchaser
for nine months of the year, failure to comply with this
condition making the purchase void. Credit-purchasers
are also required to substantially improve the land for
farming purposes, and to bring a certain amount under
cultivation within a fixed time.

All these conditions, it will be obvious, have for their
object to attract to new districts a resident farming popu-
lation, and, so far as we can judge, they have had that
effect in the part of the colony we are now traversing.
The wheat looks thick and healthy, making a happy fore-
ground to the rich belt of trees and picturesque green
hills rising behind them, which bound the view on the
right for many miles. Low, round-topped, treeless hills,
to the crown of most of which the plough has reached,
enclose the plain on the left till we arrive at Laura, when
they merge in a tine rolling country, stretching far away
to the south-east.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 215

Laura was born only thirteen months ago, yet she
already boasts various shops — one, a mere shanty, com-
bines the business of a butcher and baker — a wheel-
wright's yard, a post-office, a handsome, and, as it proved,
very comfortable hotel, and two banks (if one is opened a
rival quickly starts up), besides a mill, and several houses
in process of being built. Many of the latter are dropped
about, apparently without reference to symmetry of
arrangement, though, when the straight, wide, and far-
extending streets are built up, they will, probably, all fit
into their proper places.

We reached our hotel before dark, and enquiring at
once for a carriage, our landlord promised to have one
ready by an early hour next morning, and even hinted
that he himself might be our charioteer. No private room
was available, so we joined a table-d'hote tea, and learnt
much that was interesting concerning the township and
the neighbourhood from our fellow guests. Two of these
were respectively managers of the banks we had observed.
These institutions spring up directly farmers have settled
in a neighbourhood, whether to provide them with capital
or to take care of their wealth, it was satirically re-
marked, was not clear. They are, however, of great con-
venience. Payments are made very largely by cheque ;
some depositors scarcely ever using coin at all.

Another gentleman present, holding, we understood, the
Government appointment of Inspector of Areas, told us
there was land in the neighbourhood which had produced
sixty bushels of wheat to the acre. This quantity is
yielded only to a very limited extent; but the general
average of the district is high. It is well supplied with
water, and the air is very fine. Thus Laura promises
to become a large and prosperous town. We were amused
to learn the rivalry existing between her and another
township of almost equal age, Georgetown by name, some
miles distant, each calling the other, with withering con-
tempt, a " village." Three young men related their ex-
periences the evening before, when they attended at
Georgetown what had been announced as " The First

216 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

Concert ever given in the Areas," followed by an
impromptu ball.

The scene of the entertainment was a new store, and its
object was to raise funds to establish a school for Roman
Catholics, of whom there are many living in that neigh-
bourhood. All sects, from twenty miles round, mustered
on the occasion, and between 200 and 300 persons had
been present. The piano and most of the performers
came from Clare, thirty or forty miles distant, and it
seemed to have been a great success.

One of these gentlemen had a young pet opossum, which
found a warm nook in his pocket, but sometimes ran
about the room, and being a nocturnal animal, was a very
lively companion during the evening. It closely re-
sembled a half-grown grey tabby kitten in appearance,
except that it had a peculiar and even sinister expression.
This, however, seemed to belie its character, for it was
extremely friendly and playful. Emus used to abound
where Laura now stands, and flocks may even now some-
times .be seen walking down her broad streets ; but we
were unfortunate and met none.

September 12th. We had ordered our carriage for a
very early hour, but had breakfasted some time before it
appeared. It proved to be a good, open vehicle, with a
pair of excellent horses and a steady, sober driver ; the
landlord explaining he was prevented accompanying us
himself by the absence of his barman. We now turned due
east, and travelled for twenty miles among lately taken-up
land. Although said not to be so good as that north of
Laura, we saw a fair crop of wheat spreading over probably
many thousand acres, and the little farm-houses, from the
shanty upwards, are very numerous. Water is not plen-
tiful, and in many places were heaps of soil surrounding
a hole where vain attempts had been made to find it-
Some of these heaps consisted of pure white sand, and one
was of pipe-clay. We drove sometimes along Government
roads, as rutty as possible, for apparently nothing more
had been done than marking them out ; but whenever it
wus feasible, we kept on the still uncultivated land, having

WI1A T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA. 217

sometimes to turn aside out of the way of the plough, as
it cut the first furrow in the virgin soil. It is too late to
sow for this year's harvest, but the land will benefit by
lying fallow till next season. Porcupine grass abounded
on much of the unploughed ground, in appearance at a
little distance resembling new-mown hay just shaken out
of the swath; the narrow leaves are long and stiff.
Sheep will eat it when it is young ; for cattle it is almost
useless, but in the great drought it was cut up and used
with chaff as food for horses.

A plant like the grass-tree in miniature grew plentifully
in some parts, indicating, our driver remarked, good soil for
wheat. He saw some kangaroos in the distance, but we
failed to distinguish them. There were, he said, plenty
" back in the ranges " which surrounded us, though at a
considerable distance on all sides.

About ten miles from Laura is Caltowie, a township
possessing an hotel or " pub," as we heard it gravely
styled, a post-office, a store, and two or three little farm-
houses, all making a very small figure in the midst of the
great plain we were crossing. The horses were baited
seven miles further on, at Jamestown, which might claim
to be a township of " magnificent distances," so far apart
are its buildings scattered. It boasts two " pubs " of
imposing appearance. 'That at which we halted began
business only last Monday, its opening having evidently
been hurried to catch the custom brought by a great
ploughing match yesterday — traces of which might be
observed m the not quite sober groups hanging about the
inn doors. The landlady was a French woman, who, in the
expansion of her heart on hearing herself addressed in her
own language, confided to us much of her history. It was
one of constant occurrence, we feel sure — of a steady rise,
starting with the lack of all means but health and willing
hands, to the possession of house and land, and plenty of
money laid by.

"We had a very fair dinner in spite of the fact that the
house was yet tar from organized ; and served French
fashion in the spacious salle a manger we might have

218 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

imagined ourselves in the hotel of some country town in
France.

Our afternoon drive was over a country recalling to
mind the moors round Buxton, opening however some-
times into a vast plain, the distance being bounded on all
sides by mountain ranges, not of great elevation, but with
here and there a more striking height, as for instance,
Mount Lock, rising above the ordinary waving line.

The Canowie run belonging to an English absentee,
part of which we traversed, occupies a beautiful tract of
country. Near the handsome head station are several
little windmills which pump water into a tank, whence it
can be let out into long troughs for the sheep when
creeks and waterholes are dry. Leaving the run, we
again entered newly broken-up country, the soil in some
places of so bright a red, that strips left bare among the
wheat looked like vast beds of poppies.

We reached our sleeping-place, the new township of
Hallett, but better known as Willagoleach, a corruption
of the native name of Wildongaleach, by five in the
afternoon, and strolled out before tea to see the fine sun-
set. On returning to the inn we found a coach loaded
with shearers waiting to change horses, and it seemed,
also, to enable its passengers to get from the bar some of
those beloved potations which, when once at the station
whither they were bound, they would have for a time to
forego. They had- scarcely started when the mail arrived
loaded with similar travellers, who similarly besieged the
bar. There were two ladies inside, to whom we feared the
long journey they were making by coach must have been
more than usually unpleasant.

The next day, on which we were to reach the Burra,
was Saturday, and as the object of taking it in our route
was to see the mining operations, we were in haste to
arrive before the men would have stopped work for the
half-holiday. We were in the carriage by seven, and after
a blowy, showery drive reached the town a little before

ten. C had promised to meet us there and drive us

down to Adelaide if he could get away from business, and

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 219

it was necessary to go at once to the post-office and discover
his plans before we could make our own. Having learnt
that he would arrive by a train due in an hour or so, and
that he had despatched his buggy by railway beforehand
intending to hire horses at the Burra, and having also
deposited our luggage at an inn and ascertained that beds
could be had if needed, we were soon on our way to the
house of the captain of the mine, to whom Sir Henry
Avers, the secretary of the Burra company, had given us
a letter of introduction.

A creek which has its source in the mine, the water of
which would stop operations were it not perpetually pumped
out, flows through the town. Formerly hundreds of miners
cut out little dwellings in the banks and washed the ore
from the soil which the stream brought down with it ; and
we saw a few persons still " jigging," as this process is called.
But now the chief operations are carried on in a great
hollow in the hillside which has been previously worked
In the palmy days of the Burra it was not worth while — or
the necessary machinery was wanting — to obtain nearly
the whole of the metal from the ore, or the ore from the
surrounding soil ; and what is now going on is the extrac-
tion of that which remains in the refuse of early times.

Leaving the creek, and climbing the hill by a road
winding among the yawning spaces left by the removal of
the earth, we reached Captain Sanders' house, and were
so fortunate as to find him at home, and sufficiently at
leisure to enable him to make himself our guide, which he
courteously did.

The original workrrs of the mine seem to have driven
their shafts unscientifically, or to have constructed them
and the galleries without sufficient strength. Finding
that they were giving way, rubbish, as it was then con-
sidered, was thrown into these passages wherever prac-
ticable to support them, but the precaution failed, and the
surface of the hill has sunk thirty-two yards, while the
old beams and planks stick out in every direction. What
is now being worked is this very rubbish.

The processes for obtaining the ore and reducing it to

220 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

the marketable form are very simple. Some excavations
have been made whence earth is brought to the surface,
but much is worked with pickaxes on the hillside. Occa-
sionally blasting is necessary, but usually the matrix,
limy in its nature, crumbles almost to powder after a few
days' exposure to the air ; thus once broken away from the
mass, it is easily reduced to small pieces in which the ore
can be distinguished, and whence it may be picked out.
In the larger pieces of pure ore thus obtained, malachite
is sometimes found ; they are about the size and irregular
shape of potatoes, and are kept apart, being in fact ready
for smelting.

All the loose soil containing smaller bits goes through
a washing process. The water needed for this and every
other purpose of the mine is pumped up from the interior
of the hill, at the rate of 14,000 gallons per minute,
night and day, the whole year round. It is, indeed, the
only equal and perennial flow of water we heard of in
Australia, but poisoned of course in being used to wash
copper, it is of very little if any value alter it has per-
formed this part. To do so it is sent in a strong stream
over the washing apparatus, which resembles somewhat
an overshot wheel, to which a jerky movement from side
to side is communicated, besides a rotatory one. The
material to be washed is thrown into a sort of hopper with
a grated bottom. The lumps of ore are eliminated by
means of the grating through which the fine loose soil
escapes leaving them behind ; they then pass over succes-
sive steps or stages of the wheel, becoming cleaner on
each, until they are finally shed into troughs. From
these they are removed to floors open to the sky, where
they are spread out to dry, and thence are transferred to
sacks and so despatched to the smelter.

In one stage of the washing process the pieces are sorted
into three classes, according to the proportion of copper
they contain. The richest are of a soft blue-green colour;
the next have this tint subdued by greyish -brown, and the
poorest in quality are about the hue of unroasted coffee-
berries. The three classes lying in small quantities side

WE A T WE SAW IN A US THALIA . 22 1

by side on the drying floors, the morsels varying from the
size of a pea to that of a horse-bean, looked not unlike
the different coloured seeds in a cornchandler's window.
A pile of the larger pieces of ore (in which the blues and
greens were exquisite with a dash of vivid yellow or
orange) contained fifty per cent, of metal, but sixty per
cent, is obtained sometimes.

The refuse of the present working is conveyed out of
the mine by waggons, which carry it up steep inclines —
one is indeed almost perpendicular — and from the top it
is shot on to what looks like a lofty railway embankment ;
but the available space at this spot is almost filled up, and
a tram is being laid to a broad hollow between the hills
which appeared to us capable of receiving the rubbish for
many years to come.

One deep shaft is being sunk, and doubtless others will
be made wherever ore is likely to be found, but at present
the operations are almost entirely in the open air. Al-
though it pays simply to work among the former debris,
the glory of the Burra seems to have vanished — eclipsed
by -the marvellous yield in Yorke's Peninsula.

Copper exists, as it is believed, in abundance in many
parts of a large tract of country north of the Burra. but
the railway ceases here, and without such means of con-
veyance the cost would be too great for mining to be profit-
able. The idea of a transcontinental railway, suggested
many years ago by the late Judge Boothby, and revived
by the achievement of the telegraph, now finds favour
with special reference to opening up this rich metalli-
ferous district, and at some future day its construction
may be accomplished.

Captain Sanders showed us every part of the main
engine, that namely which pumps the water out of the
mine, and which is evidently an object of much pride and
affection. It is a Cornish engine of 500 horse-power, has
cylinder boilers, and four furnaces which consume five
tons of coal mixed with wood a-day, and brings up the
water in two columns. To our eyes it seemed gigantic,
occupying three storeys of a lofty house ; but it is the

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

only engine of the kind we have ever seen, and it may,
for all we know, be Lilliputian instead of Brobdignagian
in its dimensions.

About 320 men and boys are employed in the mine.
There are various night-schools which many attend, and
eight places of worship within the distance of a mile and
a-half. Captain Sanders spoke of his staff as for the most
part orderly and well-conducted, and they had that
appearance.

The three townships of Kooringa, Eedruth, and Aber-
deen, all near the mine, are collectively called the Burra.
There is a fourth small township about a mile off, of which
the name is Copper House. All the buildings of this
straggling town are, with the exception of two or three
churches, bald and ugly. The country around is extremely
dreary. There are no trees and scarcely any gardens, and
the grass has the woebegone aspect familiar in such
localities at home. Yet there was a large patch of
healthy-looking wheat growing close to the mine, so that
perhaps only time and trouble are needed to spread the
grace of luxuriant vegetation over this uninviting
region.

G met us as we were leaving the mine, but brought

the unwelcome news that the buggy was not forth-
coming. Some mistake had been made by the railway
officials in its transmission, and the result of their effort
to rectify their error seemed to be that the carriage was
oscillating between the Burra and Saddleworth, a station
several miles to the south. It was there now, and there
would be no train to bring it back till Monday. So we
resolved to dine and then decide what should be done;
and availed ourselves of the table-d'hote, presided over by
our host. Learning our wish to proceed to Clare, which is
several miles from the line of railway, he agreed to drive
us thither in a phaeton of his own, and early in the after-
noon we started. The weather meanwhile had become
fine. When we had crossed a slight eminence a pleasant
landscape lay before us, and soon the unsightly neigh-
bourhood of the Burra was lost to view.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 223

While pursuing a natural road down a long gentle
slope, we were arrested in our progress by a wide chasm
in the earth. Such openings produced by the heavy
winter rains are frequent, and though possible to cross
with a buggy, cannot be encountered by ordinary vehicles.
Our driver had not noticed its small commencement — a
mere crack, and when it became impassable had driven
on feeling sure from his memory of the place that some
available passage would be found. But these chasms are
most capricious and alter their course and extend them-
selves in a manner not to be reckoned on, becoming thus
an element of much difficulty, and sometimes of danger
to travellers, where no roads have been made. The only
evil consequence to us was the loss of half-an-hour, for
having reached the bottom of the long descent the horses
had to retrace their steps almost to the top. The distance
to Clare, lying south-west of the Burra, is twenty-five
miles, and for twenty miles our way across sheep-runs lay
over low, round-backed hills and broad intervening valleys,
all now destitute of trees, but not infertile in aspect, even
where yet untouched by cultivation.

The farmers are, however, invading the district; but
one, if not more, of these proprietors hold land in very
large quantities, having bought it before the Land Act
of 1872 was passed. Hill river, as a creek is called
named after Sir Rowland Hill when he was Secretary to
the South Australian Commissioners, flows through one
of the valleys we traversed, which forms part of the
Hill river run. Sixty thousand acres of the run is free-
hold, and of these 4000 acres are under cultivation, form-
ing already the largest farm, we believe, in South Australia,
and arrangements are being made to extend this amount
to 10,000. Without a railway to transport it, it would
have been impracticable to dispose of the produce on so
large a scale, but the station at Farrell's Flat is near
enough for this purpose.

The staff of labourers numbers more than a hundred,
who receive from 16s. to II. 5s. a week, besides board and
rations. Their spare time, when ordinary farm- work has

224 WE A T WE SA W IN A USTRA LIA,

to be suspended, is occupied in making dams, putting
up fencing, &c. 150 horses are employed, besides those
needed for the saddle. Substantial stabling is being
erected at the different homesteads, to supersede previous,
more humble accommodation. Each horse has his separate
loose box and water-trough, and is littered and fed from
the outside, and thus disturbed as little as possible. It is
found that the additional expense of such accommodation
is amply recompensed by the consequent health and high
working power of the animals. Labour-saving apparatus
is, of course, largely employed, including reaping, mowing,
and sowing machines.

From the 3000 acres we saw under wheat, admiring, as
we drove by, the absolute straightness of the furrows,
following the gentle rise and fall of the hills till out of
sight, the average yield, when gathered in, was (we have
since heard) eighteen bushels to the acre, while some
spots produced twenty-seven.

Forest trees are being abundantly planted on the farm,
and at intervals along the banks of Hill river. When
these have grown, they will restore to the landscape the
foliage of which the voracity of the Burra engine has
deprived it. The Blue, or Tasmanian gum, now in much
request in Europe for its anti-malaria properties, and the
stone pine, are among the trees which thrive well here.*

The hills became well-wooded and more abrupt as we
approached Clare, and gardens, orchards, and hedges, re-
minded us of home, the abundant bloom of the wattle
very well substituting that of the laburnum.

This pretty town lies in a green valley, or rather basin,
range after range of hills encompassing it about. Through
its midst runs a creek of respectable size ; it looked meek
enough as we walked along its winding banks, in the
meadows outside the town, but it can become a perfect
fury, inundating houses, destroying roads, and breaking

* Many of the particulars given in the text are extracted from an
interesting account of Hill river Farm, in the ' South Australian Register '
for January 14th, 1874.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 225

down bridges in its mad career. In the main street houses
are contiguous for a considerable distance, and it has
flagged footways and handsome shops. The beginning of
several streets branch from it, and churches have been
built at a considerable distance beyond the present limits
of the town, so that we conclude it is expected to spread
itself over a large space. A few elegant villas appear here
and there, among more humble tenements, scattered up
the hill-sides; and there is a handsome country house
about a mile away, standing in grounds which, though just
in the state Nature made them, are like a lovely English
park. The building material employed is a stone of the
neighbourhood, of a slaty character ; and in a quarry we
found impressions upon the slabs of delicate ferns and
moss, looking like seaweeds spread with exquisite skill on
grey paper. The houses have, it must be owned, a pain-
fully new and bare appearance, owing in part to the
universal use of corrugated iron for roofing. It is a
most unpieturesque material, but desirable in this country,
where it is important to save all the rain that falls. Ten
years hence, when the houses will be half-concealed by
creepers and garden foliage, Clare, we think, will strike
the traveller as he approaches it, as one of the most
pleasing country towns in aspect that he knows. In our
rambles about it we came upon an agricultural implement
factory, and two newly-built shops not yet occupied — the
beginning of a row, perhaps — which would not disgrace
any English watering-place ; while the largest of the four
or five hotels is, in appearance, equal to the best in our
smaller bathing towns.

The following day we remained at Clare, resuming our
journey on Monday. It was debated whether the buggy
should be telegraphed for to meet us at Farrell's Flat, or
whether we should go to meet it at Saddleworth; the
latter alternative was chosen, and a carriage hired to take
us part of the way, another engagement preventing it from
going the whole distance.

A few miles from Clare, and half-a-mile from the high-
road, whence, nestling in an umbrageous valley, they are

Q

226 WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA.

quite invisible, are a Jesuit convent and church. The
latter is undergoing enlargement, or rather completion, by
the addition of nave and transepts, and promises to be,
when finished, a stately and beautiful building. The
Brothers, who have named the locality Seven Hills, in
remembrance of Home, have vineyards, and a celebrated
cellar of wines for sale. They are active in their sacred
duties among their neighbours of whom a large pro-
portion are Roman Catholics, and among the scattered
population of the distant northern stations, whom, we were
told, no other pastors reach.

Having left behind the hilly country surrounding Clare,
we were now on a broad, slightly undulating plain, and
soon reached the township where our carriage was to
deposit us. This was Auburn, which, though by no
means the loveliest of villages, yet stands in the midst of
fertility, and has a wholesome cheerful aspect, so that it
may be hoped the still more important attributes of its
poetic namesake abound. Here occurred a pause in our
journey, for, contrary to expectation, the inn could
supply us with no carriage. At length an obliging in-
habitant consented to C hiring his dog-cart for the

occasion, duly provided with a driver to bring it home,
who, poor man, possessed but one leg, supplemented by a
crutch. It was a one-horse vehicle, but this did not seem
of much importance, as the distance was only seven miles.
But what was our dismay, when we had proceeded a quar-
ter of a mile or so, to find ourselves on that very piece of
road we had heard cited in the House of Assembly to illus-
trate the evil consequences of not enforcing the provisions
of the " Breadth of Wheels-tire Act " ! It certainly fulfilled
the description then given of it. It was worse than the
Melrose road — indeed, it was worse by far than any road we
had ever seen. To advance at a footpace was the utmost
that could be accomplished, with a halt every now and
then when we stuck in a rut, and a frequent descent from
the cart of all but the lame driver, to deliver it from that
position. A broken shaft was the result of one tremendous
tug, when, but for the crutch, how we should have reached

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 227

Saddleworth remains a mystery. We might, indeed,
have walked, but a walk of only six or seven miles, under
a mid-day Australian sun, even in spring, is a serious
undertaking ; and if we could have carried ourselves, we
could not have carried our baggage. But the crutch
solved the difficulty, and, bound along the broken shaft
by means of our travelling straps, enabled us, taking even
more precautions than before, to finish our journey. At

Saddleworth C found his buggy, and hired horses for

the drive to Kapunda, which we accomplished in the rain,
through an uninteresting country.

Kapunda is the most town-like country town we have
yet seen. Its features are a main street, a third of a mile
long, with shorter streets crossing it ; handsome hotels, a
town-hall, and churches; well-stocked shops, flagged
pavements, butchers' boys scampering about on horse-
back, and one or more vehicles always visible in its
highways. It seems, indeed, to be a little metropolis
for the district, owing partly, no doubt, to its advan-
tageous position at the terminus of a branch-line of the
Northern Kailway.

Some mining is still carried on here. The copper is
frequently obtained pure, but when this is the case, it is
of inferior quality, we were told, to that found in ore.

Sept. 16th. Bright sunshine again, under which the
hawksweed glowed like buttercups in May. The flower
is rather paler in colour, and in form more nearly resembles
the dandelion, but in its effect at a distance, and luxuriant
growth making the whole landscape yellow, it is a very
close representative of the buttercup. It is supposed to
have reached Australia from the Cape, and, in spite of
its beauty, is greatly disliked, as injurious to grass.

Much of our drive this morning was across the property
of Mr. Angas and his family. This district was settled early
in the history of the colony, and here we saw the stump-
fence remaining which was the first used by settlers. It
is made by simply placing, side by side, pieces four or five
feet long of the arms or trunks of trees.

Angaston has a very English appearance. Indeed we

Q 2

228 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

might have believed its broad, main street, to be the
approach to a well-cared for English village, especially
when there appeared upon the scene a phaeton and pair of
ponies — an elegant little equipage, quite fit for Hyde
Park — driven by a lady, the squire's wife as one might
suppose.

For several miles after leaving Angaston we drove
through Mr. Angas' sheep-run, our road leading us by his
handsome house and that of his son, each standing in
beautiful gardens, and only differing from English country
mansions in having no road of approach. The lodge gates,
in fact, opened on to the run, which gave one the im-
pression that these were back exits, giving access to un-
frequented parts of the surrounding park.

We then got into the scrub, coming every now and
then suddenly upon a little hamlet, with its inn, and per-
haps minute church or churches, and schoolhouse, and in
one instance a handsome temperance hall, and anon
finding ourselves in a moment in the wild unreclaimed
country again. The main road was very bad, and tra-
vellers had made fresh tracks for themselves. These
misled us, but it was some time before we discovered our
error ; and again, some time before we found any one to
set us right. At length a solitary house appeared, and
there we inquired our way ; but we had to stop again at .
another, where the only occupant seemed to be a young
lady in a riding-habit, before we were clear about it.
To regain our route, indeed, proved a long and per-
plexing affair. We seemed for a time to be " bushed,"
and began to think of camping out. Before, however,

it was quite dark, C felt sure he was in the right

road ; and in due time appeared the twinkling lights of
Eden Vale, where we agreed to sleep, instead of completing
our journey to Mount Pleasant.

Though merely a hamlet, Eden Vale has two inns. The
one we stopped at was very comfortable, and exquisitely
clean ; but arriving after the hour at which such travellers
are expected, some doubt was expressed whether material
for a substantial meal could be found. R accom-

WBA T WE SAW IN A USTEALIA. 229

panied the maid, as head of the commissariat department
(for the mistress seemed absorbed in business with a
stranger), to the kitchen, to hold a consultation. A safe-
door was thrown open that she might inspect the contents,
but these did not promise much entertainment. A beef-
steak was spoken of as possibly attainable. In short, the
will to make us comfortable was not wanting, and soon

the way was found. Meanwhile C was performing

the part of groom, as no ostler appeared. By the time
his duties were completed, an abundant, though homely,
high-tea was set in the pretty drawing-room, which con-
tained several books and ornaments ; and where, though
the almost universal piano was wanting, a concertina
reigned in its stead. A bright wood fire, too, blazed on
the white hearth, out of which, as we sat round enjoying
its grateful warmth, crawled a centipede ! This is not a
very rare event, as the creature hybernates in old timber,
and is aroused from his sleep by his home becoming too
hot to hold him.

From Eden Vale we started in the grey chill morning,
the precursor of a brilliant day. The effect of the white
mists clearing from the pretty landscape as the sun
gained power was very lovely, and one wrap after another
was thrown off as the heat increased. Before the middle
of the day the shade of our lined umbrellas was most
acceptable. Mount Pleasant looked as if it deserved its
name; here we came upon broad hedges of gorse all
ablaze with flowers, while sweetbriar perfumed the air, and
the white flag, roses, and geraniums abounded. Soon we
were among the north-eastern spurs of the Mount Lofty
Kange, and stopped to rest the horses at Gumeracha, the
loveliest of all the lovely spots, we agreed, that we had
seen in South Australia. The ground is much broken ;
the Torrens — here a broad pebbly brook, swift and clear,
overhung with fine gum-trees and shrubs in bloom —
winds among hills sometimes carpeted with rich grass,
sometimes becoming almost precipitous cliffs, while the
gorse glorifies the view with masses of splendid colour.
We had never seen this plant approach the luxuriance

230 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

with which it grows here, and were expressing our admi-
ration of its loveliness to our hostess at the hotel and a
gossip who had dropped in, when the latter besought us
to visit the grounds of a gentleman living near, where
she said the "fuzz" was most beautiful; cut into all
kinds of forms — dogs, birds, tables, chairs (in a crescendo
of admiration, and as a climax), a buggy and two horses,
a buggy that you might sit in! But we preferred the
furze in its natural state.

A drive of two hours from Gumeracha, by an excellent
road winding its way among the range, brought us to one
of the many fine points of view upon these hills. The
plain before us, striped with crops in their bright spring
tints, and dotted with timber, glowed in the westering
sun ; Adelaide was faintly discernible in its midst, and
afar off the sea shone like silver. In another hour we
were at home.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 231

CHAPTER XIII.

Botanic Gardens — Flowers and Fruits — City Mission — Glenelg —
Emigration — Bushmen's Club.

TOWARDS the eastern end of North Terrace some hand-
some iron gates form the entrance to the Botanic Gar-
dens, of which the good citizens of Adelaide are justly
proud. First laid out in 1858, under the superintendence
of Mr. Francis, they have gradually increased in size
and beauty to the present time. When opened, the
gardens probably covered from twenty to twenty-five
acres ; now they extend over sixty or seventy, and will be
considerably larger when the whole space allotted to them
by the Government has been reclaimed. The cost of
keeping them up is defrayed by the State ; and, as a
matter of course, admission is free. They are very prettily
laid out. A broad gravel walk leads from the entrance
gate across the Gardens ; between lawns formed of Sydney
couch grass. This kind of grass is a fair substitute for
English turf; beautifully verdant in winter and spring,
it partially survives the dryness even of the South Aus-
tralian summer. Greenhouses, full of flowering plants and
small shrubs and ferns, are numerous ; these, however, are
locked, their contents being so arranged that they can be
easily seen from the outside ; there being a portion of the
South Australian public, as is the case at home, who
cannot refrain from gathering flowers which do not belong
to them.

The Victoria lily, under the fostering care of the
curator, Dr. Schomburgk, is successfully grown in a house
adapted for the purpose.

232 WE A T WE SAW IN A USTBALIA.

South Australia is very fortunate in having secured the
services of the present curator, a distinguished botanist,
who devotes himself to improving and beautifying the
gardens. He is the brother of Sir Robert Schomburgk,
who re-discovered the Victoria Regina* on the river
Berbice, in English Guiana.f As far back as 1801 the
German traveller Haencke found the Victoria Regina on
the Manore, a tributary of the Amazon. The plant was
so surprisingly beautiful that Haencke, " in a transport
of admiration, fell on his knees, and expressed aloud his
sense of the power and magnificence of the Creator in
His works." But Haencke perished, and his discoveries
remained unknown in Europe. In 1827 the French
naturalist D'Orbigny saw the lily on the Parana, but his
discovery has never been published. Europe therefore
owes to Sir Robert Schomburgk her knowledge of this
marvellously beautiful flower. He discovered it some years
later in the Berbice, and Dr. Schomburgk himself in
the year 1842 met with it in the Rupununi, a tributary
of the Essequibo.J

One of the six creeks which fall into the Torrens runs
through the Gardens, and part of it has been converted
into ornamental pools. Huge clumps of arums grow at
the edge of the water, and beautiful willows hang their long
pendent branches over the pools. These are of a par-
ticular kind, brought from St. Helena, the branches of
which are longer while the foliage is much thicker than
those of the species we are familiar with at home.
Aquatic birds are plentiful, and appear extremely tame as
they march about among the visitors. Groups of pines
from various countries, all planted with a view to the
picturesque, grow in great luxuriance.

There is a reverse side to this pretty picture. Sewage

* This Dr. Schomburgk considers is the real name of the plant. The
title Victoria regia, as the gigantic water-lily is often called, apparently
proceeded, in the first instance, from a typographical error.

t The Victoria Regina. A Paper read oefore the Philosophical Society,
Adelaide, 1873.
Ibid.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 233

is allowed to enter the creek, rendering its neighbourhood
unhealthy. Cases of typhoid fever are not infrequent, and
a fatal one has recently occurred at the curator's house.
The drainage of the city is sadly neglected ; indeed, none
worthy of the name exists. But for the dry climate of
Adelaide, zymotic disease would reign triumphant, not
less in its fashionable quarters than in its poorer districts.
Frequently there are offensive smells in some of the best
parts of Adelaide, and at night, when the air contains a
greater degree of moisture, the more closely-built streets
are absolutely noisome to the passer-by. The drainage of
the city is under the direction of the Corporation, who, in
this respect, certainly fail in their duty ; the South Aus-
tralian Parliament has endowed them with the necessary
powers, but they cannot agree on a plan of action. Mean-
while the nuisance increases, and low fever is not un-
common.

Native grasses are rapidly vanishing before cultivation
and depasturing, and are being still further diminished by
foreign weeds, which immigration and cultivation will al-
ways introduce. The Kangaroo-grass, valuable for fodder,
has especially suffered. In the early days of the colony it
attained to such gigantic proportions, that in the Adelaide
plains, a man on horseback might be almost hidden as
he rode among it ; now it is rarely to be seen there.

Among the most injurious of the weeds are the thistle and
the Bathurst bur. Beport declares that the former was
brought by some enthusiastic Scotchman who, with a love
of his native land worthy of a better cause, believed the
thistle must be everywhere as welcome as the rose. The
climate of South Australia has so favoured the growth of
this plant, that whole districts are overrun with it and
rendered useless for either pastoral or agricultural pur-
poses. Parliament has been obliged to pass an Act
making the destruction both of the Bathurst bur and the
Scotch thistle compulsory ; as yet, however, with only
partial success. This evil, indeed, has become so serious
that still further steps for its removal are necessary, and
while we were in Australia Mr. George Burt was appointed

234 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

by the Government to superintend the destruction of the
thistle in districts near Mount Gambler, about 240 miles
south-east of Adelaide.

For several years Dr. Schomburgk has pursued the
cultivation of foreign grasses and fodder plants, in the
experimental department of the Gardens, to supply the
place of the native ones ; and he believes they may be
grown with success if proper attention be paid to them.
Still, as there is always a risk of their being killed by a
very untoward season, he advises rather the careful culti-
vation of the indigenous grasses. At present sheep are pas-
tured for the whole year on the same land, while it is im-
perative that there should be a period of rest to allow
the seed to ripen and sow itself, so that the plant may be
reproduced. Dr. Schomburgk showed us his plots of
growing grasses, some of which had been given by the
Governor. Many were new to us, among others the prairie-
grass and the broad-leaved, dark-coloured buffalo-grass,
both well adapted for cultivation in Australia.

There is a large collection of forest-trees to be used in
planting parks and recreation-grounds in different parts
of the colony ; Dr. Schomburgk says, in his Report for
1873, that the banks of the Burra and Kapunda Railway
are to be planted with trees from this stock. There is
reason to fear that the colony is suffering from the whole-
sale felling of timber which has gone on in some localities,
and much attention is now given to repairing this error by
the planting of forest-trees on a very large scale.

Dr. Schomburgk is always ready to supply plants and
flowers for decorations at public festivals. He gives plants
and cuttings to children to assist them in preparing for
the annual flower-shows held in their schools, and many ex-
changes are made between these Gardens and other similar
institutions. Medical plants, and others for manufacturing
purposes, are carefully cultivated. Two, the teasel and
the madder, are of great value to a recently-established
tweed manufactory at Lobethal, a township in the neigh-
bourhood of Adelaide. The colonial manufacture is pre-
ferred as being more economical than that imported from

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 235

England, but whether this is owing to the duty upon the
latter, or to the colonial fabric being better in quality, we
do not know.

In a house near the broad walk there is a very in-
teresting collection of woods and seeds ; some of the former,
being polished, show the exquisite beauty of the grain.

A small collection of wild animals is kept in the Gardens,
but the accommodation seemed to us to be too limited
for the comfort of those who are obliged to be shut up
in cages.

We reached Adelaide at the end of the hot, dry summer,
the worst season for flowers in that climate ; still we
found many in bloom at Hazelwood. One of these is
a standard yellow Cape jessamine, growing as a circular
bush, perhaps twenty feet in circumference; this beau-
tiful shrub is perennial in its blossom, making the
border around yellow with its petals. A crimson pas-
sion-flower and a blue ipomcea, which grow together
over the entrance to a trellis walk covered with vines,
put forth their lovely flowers almost, if not quite, the
whole year round. Nor can we forget an oleander —
a mass of pink blossom ; the climate is admirably
adapted to this shrub, which grows in some instances to
the size of a tree, bearing either white, pink, or crimson
blossoms.

Plants which will only live in greenhouses and
others requiring the most sheltered situations out of
doors in England, flourish luxuriantly at Adelaide in
the open garden. Among them is the plumbago, with
its clusters of delicate blue-grey blossoms, and the len-
tana, its flowers shading from orange to pale canary on
one stalk, while on another they vary from purple to light
mauve. Chrysanthemums came into blossom shortly alter
our arrival with a perfection only known at home when
cultivated under glass.

A few weeks later the autumnal rains set in, hailed
with delight after a dry season of many months. The
arums pushed their verdant spikes above the ground,

236 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

and the bulbous plants, peculiarly favoured by the climate,
began to show themselves in the garden borders. The
quickening of vegetation caused by the rain falling
on the heated earth is rapid beyond anything those who
have never witnessed it can conceive. Grass seemed to
start up in every available spot. There are in fact but
three seasons in Australia. Spring follows immediately
upon autumn ; real winter, such as we experience in our
colder climate, has no existence here.

Violets, the oxalis opening its pink or yellow flowers
only when the sun shines, narcissus, jonquils, and arums,
followed in quick succession, all remaining in luxuriant
blossom for a much longer period than they do in England.
The flowering season for native plants is chiefly winter
and early spring. The Acacia armata is then covered
with its yellow tufts or balls. This shrub, familiar at
home as a winter green-house flower, grows wild in
South Australia, and will attain to a height of fifteen
or twenty feet. Trained as a hedge and well pruned,
it forms an impervious fence for gardens or fields, but the
rapidity with which it burns makes its use dangerous.
Coming originally from Kangaroo Island, the fences thus
made are called Kangaroo hedges.

Aloes, though not indigenous, flourish. One variety, the
stag aloe, growing in the shape of a bush, puts forth large
spikes of scarlet bloom, forming a brilliant ^feature in the
gardens. Meanwhile the almonds, here attaining to the
size of large apple-trees, begin to show their lovely pink
and white blossoms, and speedily are covered with bloom,
which in time gives way to the delicate green of an
abundant foliage ; the fallen petals may give Australians
who have never seen it an adequate idea of snow. Then
follow the more delicate bulbous flowers in almost endless
variety, chiefly natives* of the Cape of Good Hope, Ixias,
Sparaxis, Tritonia, &c.

The large bushes of geranium and heliotrope, which
have borne some blossoms during the whole winter, now
display them in abundance. Pruning and watering is
all the cultivation they require in this happy climate ;

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTBA LI A. 237

wherever water can be obtained most flowers will grow in
the greatest perfection.

Irrigation has been carried to a considerable extent,
Water, stored in reservoirs easily filled by the winter rains,
is conveyed through pipes over the gardens. Adelaide
and its suburbs are well supplied from waterworks, and
the garden hose is as familiar as at home. Trees as well
as plants require irrigation ; oranges at certain seasons
need it in great abundance. Conservatories and green-
houses are very uncommon, but a shelter from the sun
and wind, built of reeds (called a bamboo-house), is not
infrequent. One we saw, had been erected on purpose for
growing vegetables.

Some of our spring favourites are not able to bear the
heat. Crocuses and snowdrops are extremely rare ; prim-
roses and cowslips, planted singly in pots and watched
over with tender care, we have seen in beautiful blossom,
but their delicious scent, associated at home with the
advent of spring, had departed.

In October flowers are at their best. Then the gardens
are splendid with the scarlet mesembryanthemum in
masses of colour too dazzling to look upon. Roses of
all kinds flourish ; the old-fashioned monthly, almost
supplanted at home by varieties more recently intro-
duced, makes beautiful hedges which are covered with
blossom.

But it is impossible to enumerate all the flowers we
saw and admired in Australia. At times we felt as we
gazed upon them, that had we seen nothing else, the
trouble of our journey would have been well repaid.

The cultivation of flowers is a favourite pursuit, and
often followed by ladies, despite their scanty leisure, with
great success. Here no frost renders vain the gardener's
labour, but a hot wind — happily, however, rare — produces
in appearance precisely the same effect ; it is almost
equally dreaded as an enemy, and its scorching breath
will for a time destroy the beauty of a garden.

Several flower and fruit shows are held during the year
at Adelaide. We were present at one in the Town Hall

238 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

where the decorations of fern and foliage made a beautiful
background to the floral display. The specimens exhibited
were chiefly those familiar to us in English hothouses, re-
quiring moisture as well as heat, and therefore extremely
difficult to bring to perfection in Australia ; they did not
equal similar flowers at home. Whatever is rare is
most tempting to the cultivator, and the expectation,
in which we were disappointed, of seeing the lovely
flowers indigenous to Australia in perfection, was perhaps
unreasonable.

The profusion with which fruit grows amazes a stranger.
Grapes in vast quantities and great variety are cultivated
for wine; their light green foliage, which retains its
verdure through the summer, makes the vineyards refresh-
ing spots for the eye to rest on when wearied with the
dead brown of the landscape : and the rich red the leaves
assume in autumn is even more beautiful. It is said that
the English hothouse grape is superior to any produced
in the open air ; in Europe this may be true, but none we
had ever tasted equalled those in the Hazel wood vineyard.
Excellent raisins are made from the muscatel grape. We
visited a vineyard a few miles from Adelaide where they are
prepared on a large scale ; but the quantity produced in
South Australia does not as yet supply her own wants. The
currant-vine was the prettiest of the many kinds we saw.
Trained on trellises, its miniature berries, delicious to the
taste, purple or white, hang in slender bunches from nine
to twelve inches long. The grapes are mostly without
seeds, which are produced in a few of twice the ordinary
size occurring here and there in the bunch.

The orange-trees, bearing flower and fruit together,
surpass all others in beauty. We can hardly call to mind
a more lovely sight than the Hazelwood orangery towards
sunset in July or August when the fruit is ripe. Row
after row of trees bending under the weight of their
golden balls contrasting with the dark foliage filled the
foreground, while behind them rose lofty hills of vivid
green, the whole glorified by the splendour of the
declining sun.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 239

The loquat, a native of Japan, forms a very ple.asant
addition to the list of fruits. A variety of the chestnut,
it bears spikes of white blossom, and the edible portion
of the fruit is the fleshy case enclosing several dark
mahogany-coloured seeds, each the size of a horse-bean.
It has a pleasant tart flavour, and looks, when ripe, like
a small yellow apple. This fruit comes earliest of the
season, and is at its best by the end of October. Wall-
fruit trees grow as standards ; * so plentiful are the crops
that fallen fruit covers the ground beneath, no one think-
ing it worth picking up; pigs are fed on the peaches
and apricots, given in such large quantities that these
animals become extremely particular in their choice.
There are two distinct varieties of the peach, one the
freestone, the most common in England, the other the
clingstone, of which the flesh, firm as that of an apple,
adheres closely to the stone ; these the gourmands will
toss aside with their snouts, condescending only to eat the
freestone. It was not easy to reconcile ourselves to such
a prodigal waste, until we became accustomed to hearing
oranges spoken of by the gross, almonds by the bushel,
peaches and apricots by the hundredweight, and grapes
by the ton.

Fruit is low in price when sold wholesale, but dear
enough to buy retail, even in Adelaide. In remote dis-
tricts it is extremely expensive, and in the distant bush
almost impossible to procure; the cost of carriage is so
high as to be nearly prohibitory. When greater facilities
for the conveyance of fruit shall be established, and it can
be freely distributed throughout the colony, it will prove
an inestimable blessing to the inhabitants of the stations,
afibrding them a cool and wholesome addition to their
extremely limited diet.

A bushel basket of fine freestone peaches is sold to the
dealers in Adelaide for 6d., and apricots for preserving,

* We hear from a correspondent that from a tree planted three and a-
half years ago, a little thing two feet and a-half high when put into the
ground, more than two hundred dozen peaches were this season thinned
out, still leaving a good crop to ripen. February, 1875.

240 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

for 4s. a hundredweight, grapes being 42. per ton; and
9d. per dozen for oranges was, in the season of 1873,
considered a good price for the grower. The orange-tree is
of too recent introduction in South Australia to produce
enough for her consumption, and oranges from Sydney still
compete with those of native growth. There are in both
colonies many varieties ; and the fruit being freshly
gathered is more delicious than any eaten in England.

Having had some acquaintance with the haunts of that
class which in England supplies the pupils to our Bagged
and Reformatory Schools, we wished to see how they com-
pared with .those of the Antipodes. The poor half-starved
creatures one meets in English towns do not exist in Aus-
tralia, though the vices which tend to produce this ex-
tremity of destitution are not absent in any of the colonies.
Still, as far as our observation went, they prevail less in
South Australia than in her sister provinces, which perhaps
may be attributed to the happier circumstances of her
origin. She has never had to undergo the evils resulting
from transportation; nor have her gold-fields been suffi-
ciently rich to attract the ill-conditioned class who have
flocked to Yictoria and New South Wales. The cheapness
of food, and the demand for labour affording employment
to all who will work, help to prevent the evils we meet
with at home. Nevertheless, even in Adelaide the
labours of a City Missionary are required. He, we were
told, could show us the "back slums," and we "accord-
ingly paid Mr. Berry a visit. We were much interested
in hearing his account of his work ; but we could see no
resemblance in the wide streets open to the glorious sun-
shine, shabby and dirty though the houses might be, to
the courts and alleys of our overcrowded cities in Eng-
land. Nor did the pupils in his day-school look like those
in corresponding institutions at home.

Adelaide boasts two theatres; the second, in a more
convenient part of the town, has superseded the older
building, now appropriated to the various purposes of the
Mission, The pit and stage have been adapted to the

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA. 241

purpose of a night-school for boys, the desks and
benches affording a strange contrast to the tawdry and
faded decoration of the boxes, which still remain.

Mr. Berry wisely approves of recreation, and permits
amusements to be carried on in the school-room when
lessons are finished. The dressing and other rooms in the
theatre, which make comfortable apartments, he lets as
lodgings.

Adelaide is fortunate in her proximity to the coast.
Brighton, the Semaphore, and Glenelg are favourite places
of resort. The latter, about seven miles distant, is now
especially accessible, being connected by a railway with
the metropolis, opened during our stay in the colony.
The rails, like those of a tramway at home, abruptly com-
mence in King William Street and terminate close to the
beach at Glenelg. Passengers step from the road into the
long carriages, entering them at either end.

The grant by the South Australian Parliament in aid
of immigration, which resulted from the late change of
Ministry, led to some alteration in the Immigration Act,
passed in 1872, and new regulations have been issued,
dated September 17, 1873. Under these, " assisted pas-
sages " are granted to specified classes of persons, and while
the full charge for an adult, by an emigrant ship, is 15Z., a
man or woman, under forty years of age, who fulfils the
conditions prescribed, may obtain an " assisted passage " on
the payment of 41. Between the ages of forty and fifty the
contribution is 81. per head, while for children under ten
it is 31 Immigrants who have paid their own passage, or
who, having been assisted, repay to the Government the
remainder of their fare, obtain, after two years' residence
in the colony, a grant of land worth 201, and available for
the purchase of other land if the section granted does not
suit the recipient.*

* All details of information needed by intending emigrants may be
obtained from the emigration agent for South Australia, at 8, Victoria
Chambers, Westminster. There also can be procured a very useful
Manual, entitled • Handbook for Emigrants,' prepared under the authority

B

242 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

To encourage an agricultural population, the purchase of
land has been made very easy. Thus, a man, with capital
enough to pay down a certain portion of the purchase-
money required to enable him to take possession of his
land, and a small surplus for such farm-buildings and im-
plements as are necessary to start with, and to defray the
cost of living until he can get a maintenance from his farm,
may become in a few years the owner of a productive
estate. He must be prepared to work hard, and as labour
is very dear to hire, he is fortunate if he have children able
to work too, while his wife must take her full share of all
that is going on. Undoubtedly the small Australian farmer
and his family must be willing to lead a very laborious
life ; but if they are blest with health, and are sober and
frugal, independence is within their grasp. Our own ob-
servation leads us strongly to urge the emigration of
families. Children are an element of wealth in a new
country, of which dwellers in an old one have no concep-
tion. The risk of their being overworked is counterbalanced
by the abundance of food and free open-air life. It must,
too, be borne in mind that there is much light employment
on a farm in which they may be occupied without injury,
and thus save the payment of high wages; while com-
panionship with their parents, and the fact that all are
working on their own land, give an interest and dignity
to industry which children are quick to feel. In some
localities it is difficult, and in very remote spots even
impossible, to send them to school; but a township
generally springs up where a few farmers have established
themselves, and with the township comes in time the school,
the church, and often the literary institute.

Another strong reason for the emigration of families is
the desirableness of young people becoming accustomed
to the liberty of a new country and to the high wages
they can command, while still under parental influence.

of the South Australian Government, by Mr. Harcus, and published in
1873. There is an emigration agency for South Australia established
also at Hamburgh and at Bremen.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 243

If they come out from England independent of such
control, the novel circumstances in which they find them-
selves placed are not favourable to steadiness. The great
demand for female servants tells especially on young
women. The new arrivals by an emigrant ship, who have
been anxiously awaited for months, are all probably en-
gaged within a few hours, at wages far above what they
have been accustomed to receive. These range from 207.
to 307. a year for maids, who at home would receive from
101. to 20/. The more accomplished and efficient are paid
more highly. In-door men-servants are very uncommon.
A gardener and farm-servant of superior capacity whom we
know, receives 36s. a week, and has a good house rent-
free, with a large garden, which he is allowed time to
cultivate.

There are, doubtless, among the servants who emigrate
individuals in all respects equal to the best at home, but
generally they belong to the humbler class of their pro-
fession, while some have never been in service at all.
They are ignorant, consequently, of many things that
good servants in England can do. They are, too, quite
unprepared for much work that Australian servants are
expected to perform, for the lack of conveniences, and
for the homely accommodation they will often meet with.
Thus they are easily discouraged, and finding that with or
without a recommendation they are sure of another place,
they are often indifferent to keeping the one they happen
to be in. Again, the amount of personal liberty allowed is
an unsafe privilege in a strange land to young people be-
longing to no one whom they fear to grieve. Holidays, too,
are far more frequent, and more completely at the option
of servants than with us. There are various anniversaries,
on which, by common consent, they are always free to go
where they like. We called on Easter Tuesday on a lady
whose domestic staff is probably one of the most numerous
and complete in Adelaide. She told us she was extremely
glad we had not happened to come the day before, for,
being Easter Monday, she had had absolutely no servant
in the house but her little page, and him she had bribed

B 2

244 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

to remain by promising he should go at some other time
to the circus. Not infrequently these festal days conclude
with a ball, from which the young people may not return
until the night is far spent. Houses possessing more
than a ground-floor are still rare in South Australia ; the
kitchen and servants' chambers are frequently somewhat
apart from the rest of the house, and also, like the other
rooms, may generally be entered from outside. More-
over, windows, and doors too, are often left open through
the night in hot weather. Such Arcadian habits reveal
a delightful immunity from thieves, but they demand
among servants, of whose absence or presence in their bed-
rooms their employers often must be ignorant, an amount
of discretion and self-respect which we all know is not
universal.

The difficulties and dangers we have indicated as at-
tending young women to whom everything in Australia is
new, seem not to affect those who have grown up among
the circumstances we have described. Australians are
much valued as servants, and, as far as we could judge,
deservedly so. Unfortunately there is a strong repug-
nance to domestic service among them, and the majority,
we are told, prefer remaining at home absolutely idle, or
obtaining employment for comparatively small wages in
shops, or in the factories for ready-made clothes which
are springing up in Adelaide.

If, however, a young Englishwoman decides to emigrate
by herself, she may go out in the Government ships, which
at present sail every three or four months, under the care
of a responsible matron, and on reaching Port Adelaide
the matron of the Servants' Home will meet her when she
disembarks, and, if she desire it, will take her to that
institution, where she can remain for the moderate pay-
ment of a shilling a day until she has obtained a place.

The Home is managed by a Committee of Ladies,
assisted by a Board of Advice consisting of gentlemen ;
and as it forms a valuable, indeed an indispensable, por-
tion of the arrangements for the welfare of immigrants, it
is partly supported by Government. The remainder of

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 245

its income is supplied by subscriptions and by payments
from inmates. Besides immigrants, the Home receives
servants seeking employment, and those who, having been
ill, are convalescent, and still need rest and care. These are
charged five shillings a week, while those who lodge there
simply because they are out of place, pay seven shillings.

The institution occupied, when we visited it, a cheerful
house in a good street in Adelaide, but we understand it
has since been removed to a larger one. The value of
such an institution, if well managed, in a country where a
large proportion of the female servants have no family-
home, can scarcely be over-estimated, and this seemed to
us admirably conducted. The ladies of the Committee
take an active interest in its welfare, and it appeared to
be particularly fortunate in its matron. One omission,
as we deemed it, in the arrangements for the care of the
young women and girls who emigrate under Government
auspices, we should be glad to know had been supplied.
On the arrival of the emigrant ships there are usually
many relatives or friends of the passengers waiting to
receive them. There is nothing to prevent the evilly-
disposed from personating such connections, and if they
can succeed in deceiving the new-comers, in carrying them
off for their own purposes. It is not difficult to imagine
a supposititious uncle or aunt thus getting possession of a
young girl, who, on discovering the fraud, might well be
at a loss in a strange country, where she knew no one, by
what means to repair the mistake she had made. Such a
danger is provided against at Sydney, we were informed
(and perhaps elsewhere), by the female emigrants who
have come out alone being all required to go, in the first
instance, to the depot prepared for their reception. There
they are allowed only to communicate with persons of
gooa repute, whether relatives or employers seeking
servants.

The bushmen of South Australia have been what may
be termed the thews and sinews of the colony. In its
early days their capital, enterprise, and labour created the

246 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

larger part of its wealth. Owing its present prosperity,
in great measure, to them, it naturally feels an interest
in their well-being. Their occupation compelled them
formerly to dwell almost beyond the pale of civilization.
Those who were married and had families possessed (except
on stations where the squatters provided schools) but little
power of educating their children, and were destitute of
society and of the means of recreation. The life of the
unmarried bushman was perfectly isolated. He lived,
perhaps for months together, in a solitary hut, without
seeing a single human being for many successive weeks.

Bushmen are well known to be hospitable to strangers
and to each other ; generous and ready to help members
of their own class when in distress. But steady and hard-
working in the bush, the conduct of many when in town
can only be described, to use the lightest term, as the
extreme of folly. This may be partly attributed to the
reaction from the solitary life they lead, and partly, also,
to the nature of their food. It formerly consisted exclu-
sively of mutton, damper, and tea — the latter in enormous
quantities — without milk. Of vegetables and fruit they had
none — a menu which still largely prevails. Such diet, in
the opinion of medical men, creates an intense desire for
alcoholic liquors. Spending but little money in the
bush, for rations are supplied by their employers, they
receive, when they draw their wages, a large sum in the
lump.

A not uncommon way for bushmen to spend their
hardly-earned holiday is to repair to a township possessing
a public-house, and there to give their wages, generally
in the form of a cheque, to the landlord, desiring him to
tell them when they have " knocked it down," i.e., drunk
it out. This end being accomplished, they depart penniless,
" wandering about like a stranger in a strange land, and
often driven by sheer necessity back to the bush, even for
a meal of food, for in the thickly settled districts a bush-
man is shunned, and oft-times almost despised." * Then

* ' History of the Bushmen's Club,' Adelaide, 1873.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 247

begins again another long period of toil, until the season
comes round for a similar debauch.

So notorious was this mode of spending a holiday in the
metropolis, that bushmen have been described by the sti-
pendiary magistrate there as the " biggest fools" he ever
came in contact with — contact occasioned by their frequent
appearance before him in his judicial capacity. And
"cleaning out" a bushman was as common in Adelaide
as robbing sailors in their low haunts is at home.

But it would be most unjust to represent that all bush-
men follow these wretched practices. Many, and especially
the younger members of their class, are prudent and
thrifty. Still, the number of the foolish was so large
that the evil could be borne with no longer ; and pity,
that so valuable and, in some respects, estimable a class
of men should waste their health and squander their
means, suggested an effort in their behalf.

Perhaps the best friend the South Australian bushman
has ever had is an excellent man who calls himself
" William," and declines to give his surname, or to afford
any further information about himself. Various rumours
are naturally afloat respecting him, but so well has he
kept his own counsel, that nothing really is known, except
that for many years he has traversed the sparsely popu-
lated pastoral districts as a missionary to bushmen.

One thing is certain, — he could not have attained to the
position he holds, enjoying universal respect, had he not
proved himself, not only a capable, but also an honest
and a benevolent man. The knowledge acquired of their
habits and character in his long intercourse with bushmen
convinced him that the evils we have described could
only be remedied by the establishment of some central
home, where, during their holiday, they could be com-
fortably lodged and boarded at a moderate charge, secure
from the temptations of the public-house.

In 1866 he failed in an endeavour to raise interest in
his plan ; but nothing daunted, he tried again two years
later, and this time he succeeded. He enlisted the sym-
pathy of Mr. J. H. Angas, a wealthy squatter, son of one

248 WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRAL I A.

of the oldest colonists of South Australia. It was decided
by him that, as a preliminary to further action, William
should obtain as many adhesions to the proposal as he
could from the bushmen themselves, and, if possible, their
opinion as to the best locality for the home, and any
other suggestions which would assist the scheme. Some
months elapsed before William had accomplished this
task; and it was not till the last day of the year 1868
that a meeting on the subject was held in Adelaide,
attended by many of the leading men of the colony. A
committee was formed for establishing a bushmen's club
or home. The first step was to obtain subscriptions from
the bushmen themselves, and for this purpose subscription
forms and prospectuses were circulated as widely as
possible among them. William at the same time under-
took to canvass the stations and wool-sheds, adding this
to his already heavy missionary labours. In his wander-
ings for this end he visited nearly 200 stations or sheds,
read an address he had prepared for the purpose fifty-six
times, and travelled on foot about 1600 miles. Many
months were thus consumed in achieving this object ; nor
was it until a year later that the committee, when it had
been determined, for various reasons, to place the club, as it
was to be called, in Adelaide, deemed it expedient to hold a
public meeting to make their scheme known, and to solicit
general support. Nearly 600Z. had been by this time
collected, the greater part contributed by the bushmen ;
so that active steps could be taken to secure a house.

During the months that had passed since the first
projection of the scheme, opposition had arisen, revealing
itself in numerous letters and paragraphs in the news-
papers ; some from bushmen themselves, others in the
publican interest. These effusions possibly may have
deterred some subscribers, and have caused delay in the
execution of the scheme, but though very annoying and
troublesome at the time, they do not appear to have
produced any permanent injury.

Rules for the government of the club were now drawn
up. Its property was vested in Trustees, and the active

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 249

control of the institution in a Board of Managers, both
elected by the subscribers.

It was provided that no alcoholic liquor should be allowed
on the premises, and that members must behave with pro-
priety. Gambling, drinking, swearing, and use of obscene
language were of course strictly prohibited. Beyond these
necessary restrictions, however, the rules were as little
stringent as possible, and the sum fixed for board and
lodging was moderate. William now resolved to make a
further sacrifice in behalf of the enterprise, and to give up
for a time his missionary labour in the bush, the con-
tinuance of which he had much at heart. He volunteered
to be the superintendent, i.e., active manager of the club
for twelve months without salary. No more efficient
person could have been found to fill this important post,
and his services were thankfully accepted by the committee.

All being now ready, the club was formally opened on
May 20th, by Sir James Fergusson, then Governor of
South Australia. The house rented by the managers had
formerly been the residence of Mr. Justice Cooper, the
first judge appointed for South Australia, and has a more
tragic interest as the spot where the first man condemned
to death in the colony received his sentence.

The building stands in an open, healthy situation. A
small quantity of land attached to it still bore traces,
when leased for the club, of having been a garden, as fruit-
trees and ornamental shrubs were still dotted about the
ground. The house contained fifteen rooms, which were
comfortably fitted up for their various purposes — dor-
mitories, a labour office, bath-room, two smoking-rooms,
&c., &c. It must have appeared a palace to its members,
compared with the rough accommodation they are accus-
tomed to in the bush.

For a week after its opening, the club remained without
a customer. The first who presented himself was a well-
known character in Adelaide, yclept " Charlie the Loafer ; "
he was soon followed by others. The first event in the
club's history was a cricket match played by the inmates
in July. The mirth of the players is described as " genuine

250 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

and boisterous." A foot-ball match followed in August.
Soon afterwards the Labour Office at the club-house was
opened, where both employers and those seeking engage-
ments could meet. By the end of the year, the accom-
modation provided for twelve persons at the opening had
been made sufficient for twenty-four ; 285 members had
enrolled themselves on its books, and a small library of
books was provided, besides periodicals, magazines, and
newspapers.

A pleasant ceremony took place on January 17th,
1871. The inmates having subscribed five guineas for
the purchase of a flag, it was resolved that its " hoisting "
should be made the occasion of a festival. The flag, its
colours red, white, and blue, and inscribed " United Bush-
men's Club," was raised early in the afternoon, the bushmen
present greeting its arrival at the top of the pole with
deafening cheers, and a band of music immediately strik-
ing up " Home, sweet home." The party then adjourned
to the Parklands, where different games were kept up with
great spirit. Supper, songs and recitations closed the
festivities of the day. The chairman of the evening,
Mr. C. B. Young, a gentleman who had been the steady
friend and supporter of the club from its commencement,
remarked, he was reminded by the temperance song,
introduced, that it had been established on temperance
principles. Many of its friends considered these would
prejudice its success, but the result had justified William
m the course he had pursued.

About this time, subscriptions arrived from sympathizing
bushmen in New South Wales, who unfortunately not
having such an institution in their own colony, desired to
benefit one belonging to their neighbours. Sympathy for
the club was also expressed in Victoria, and enquiries about
its management, &c., came from a gentleman in West
Australia, who hoped a similar institution might be estab-
lished there. At Sydney, also, Captain Scott, the Police
Magistrate, well acquainted with the miserable life led by
bushmen when in town, had made strenuous efforts to
establish such a club, but without success.

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA. 251

Early in 1871, the sale of the premises, hitherto
held only on lease, was unexpectedly announced, and
unless the freehold could be purchased, the members would
be compelled to seek a new domicile. They accordingly
bestirred themselves to raise the necessary funds, amount-
ing to WOOL

With help from their own class, and that of their
friends, supplemented by a loan from Mr. Angas senior,
subsequently changed into a gift, the required sum was
collected, and in July 1871, not fourteen months from the
opening, the premises were purchased. The number of
members had meanwhile risen to 390. William at the
same time generously offered to remain as superinten-
dent for two years longer.

More accommodation being needed, as the number of
members and boarders continued to increase, funds were
again collected and a Government grant of 500L was
obtained to defray the cost of a new dormitory. By
the end of 1872 the members numbered 87t>, and the
building required still further enlargement. The funds
seem always to have been forthcoming when wanted, partly
from bushmen themselves, the rest from the liberal public
of the colony.

Our visits to the institutions of Adelaide would have been
very incomplete had we neglected to see the Bushmen's
Club. Mr. C. B. Young was so good as to offer to accom-

Eany us, and accordingly, one morning, we drove into Ade-
lide to meet him. On arriving, however, he begged
us to postpone our visit, as he had just learnt that William
had been obliged to go out for a few hours to convey an
unfortunate bushman to the Lunatic Asylum, and he
assured us that to miss the superintendent would be to
lose half the interest of our visit. Another day was there-
fore fixed, when we might reckon on finding him at the
club.

William courteously showed us over the house, with its
spacious dining-room, reading and smoking-rooms, and
comfortable sleeping apartments. Though no drink-
ing is allowed on the premises, still, should a boarder

252 WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA.

indulge iu it outside, and be unfortunately beguiled into
excess, and apply for admission, even after the hour for
closing has arrived, he is not refused.

William told us that the bushmen frequenting the club
had been for years in the habit of placing their money in
his hands for safe keeping ; he generally deposited these
sums in the Savings' Bank. During the current year the
deposits had already amounted to 10,0007. By far the
greater portion had, indeed, been drawn out by the deposi-
tors, but it may reasonably be supposed, for useful purposes.
He said that a great change had taken place in the outward
appearance of bushmen. Formerly they never thought of
improving their dress while in town — a pair of moleskin
trowsers and a blue shirt, their work-a-day garments had
sufficed for their holiday. Now a good suit of clothes
was considered a proper toilette for their sojourn in the
metropolis.

The library is still small, containing only some 200
volumes, besides periodicals and newspapers. Bushmen
are extremely fond of reading, however, and the project of
instituting a lending library, to circulate among them in
their distant homes, has been discussed by the Board of
Management, but as yet it is not in operation. People are
very busy in Australia, and leisure for undertaking this
new department is not easily to be obtained.

Another project included in the original programme of
the club is not yet carried into execution. This is the
erection of separate quarters for married bushmen. At pre-
sent they are compelled to take houses or lodgings and
furnish them, if they have occasion to bring their wives
and children to town, which is both troublesome and-
costly. A benefit club is also under consideration, but is
not yet established.

It is not uncommon to find among the denizens of the
bush highly educated men, born in the rank of gentlemen,
and most unwisely sent to Australia because they have
fallen into evil courses at home, — unwisely, because if when
surrounded by home-influences, with a reputation to pre-
serve, and hedged round with all the restrictions which

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 253

society imposes in an old country, they go astray, it is
unreasonable to expect that, wnen far removed from
friends, alone in the world, and assailed by still stronger
temptations, they will regain the position in the colonies
they have lost at home. Their usual doom is to sink into
the position of shepherds, obliged to live in solitary huts,
and to perform the drudgery of a station hand. To these
poor outcasts William has been a real friend, and many,
through his means, have been enabled to return to their
native country.

The fencing in of the runs is making quite a revo-
lution in the position of bushmen. Their work has
diminished in so considerable a degree that they will be
compelled to seek other employments, either at the
diggings, or in mining, or they may take up farming.
For the latter the new areas will afford plenty of space.
A thorough bushman, as William says, can turn his hand
to anything.

On quitting the Home we took a cordial farewell of its
manager, glad to have made the acquaintance of this
remarkable man.

From the fourth report of the Club we learn that, at
the annual meeting, held in December 1873, it was deter-
mined to make some alterations in its government with a
view to meet the wants of the country population generally,
such as gold diggers and miners, agricultural labourers,
drovers, &c.

The report gives a favourable account of its position.
We gather that it pays a large proportion of its working
expenses, but that it is not yet, as its promoters desire it
shall become, self-supporting. One of the speakers at the
meeting, in proposing a vote of thanks to the hon. super-
intendent, remarked that before the club was established,
the bushmen had " had sad times of it." Many of them
"earned their money like horses and spent it like asses."*

* Just as we are going to press the fifth report has reached us. It
shows that, though there are still bushmen who waste their money in drink,
the influence of the club has reduced these to a small minority.

254 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

We trust that the example of the South Australian
Club will be soon followed in the sister colonies. The
circumstances surrounding bushmen, and the evils conse-
quent upon them, are similar in every province into which
the continent is divided.

It is only among reptiles and insects that any creatures
exist in Australia which are dangerous to man, and these
excite so little alarm among the colonists, that our friends
were much amused when we expressed any fear of either
one or the other. With regard to snakes, we were as-
sured it was extremely unlikely we should even see one,
and if we did, it would be much more frightened at us
than we need be of it.

Snakes, we were told, get out of sight as quickly as they
can, and only attack when either trodden on or inter-
cepted on the way to their holes. Indeed, one of our
cousins said, " for his part, he would gladly compound
for the absence of wasps by the presence of snakes." He
shared, perhaps, the opinion we once heard expressed by
an old lady, who declared that she would rather encounter
a mad bull than a wasp.

Notwithstanding this professed indifference, we found
it was considered the bounden duty of any person who
came upon a snake to kill it on the spot. Among the
varieties of this reptile, some are venomous, while others
are harmless ; but as it is not easy to distinguish at a
glance the one kind from the other, sentence of death is
pronounced indiscriminately on all.

Snakes are more numerous than usual this season in
our neighbourhood, and several have been killed. Indeed,
they are not infrequently searched for under stones or
among timber, that they may be destroyed while still
young.

One hot day in October, as we were driving by our-
selves into Adelaide, we saw an object lying in the middle
of the road, some distance ahead, which looked like the
dead bough of a tree. As we approached, the bough
began to move, and when we came up with it we saw it

WHA T WE SAW IN A USTSALIA. 255

was a serpent of a greenish-yellow colour, five or six feet
in length, and as thick as a man's wrist. It was making
off into the kangaroo-hedge which bordered the road, as
fast as it could.

"K ," exclaimed F , "we ought to kill that

snake." "F ," responded R , "we can't." We were

told afterwards it was well we had not made the attempt,
as in all probability the snake was venomous ; our only
weapon being the chaise-whip, our enemy would most
likely have come off best in the contest. We frequently
heard of snakes in Victoria, New South Wales, and Tas-
mania, but we saw none in either colony.

The Jew lizard, about a foot or fifteen inches long,
and quite black, is perfectly harmless. He does, indeed,
sometimes bite, but, having no teeth, he can inflict no
pain. When frightened or angry, he raises round his
neck a white substance resembling an Elizabethan frill,
which gives him a most uncanny appearance.

One day S received a rare lizard (Moloch Jiorridus),

which was considered an appropriate birthday present for a
naturalist. It was eight or nine inches long, of a speckled
yellow, its shape suggesting a somewhat corpulent little
dragon, with spike-like excrescences all over its body. Not-
withstanding its name and somewhat uninviting appear-
ance, it was perfectly harmless ; indeed, the sufferings the
poor little creature underwent from alarm were much more
intense than any it had the power of creating. Being
put one day in the garden, it was found crouching in the
corner of its cage, paralyzed with fright at a number of

ants which, attracted by the raw meat S had placed

there in the hope it might prove acceptable food, had
invaded its dwelling.

The bull-frog is an amusing creature. In spring-time
it is his practice to inflate his body, and then suddenly
expel the air with a pop, like that when a paper-bag,
treated in a similar manner, is burst open with a sharp
blow. These sounds, resembling a miniature discharge of
artillery, are continuous in the vicinity of water ; but so
rarely is the creature seen to drive forth the air, that it

256 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

is believed he will not perform the operation when he

knows himself to be watched. R stole quietly one

day to the bath in the garden and peeped at a bull-frog
hanging to the ladder and blown out to his biggest,
hoping to see him let himself off, but he found her out,
and made his breath outlast her patience.

Scorpions, though not, we believe, attaining to a large
size, are common. We saw none ; but, then, we never
searched for them in their favourite haunts, under stones
or between the inner and outer bark of trees.

There is a variety of the wasp which is addicted to
building its nest in any crevice it can find; sometimes
the space formed by the covers of books, where they
project beyond the leaves, affords it a convenient place,
and its well-known propensity for using keyholes for this
purpose causes them to be plugged with paper to prevent
its ingress. These wasps do not congregate in numbers,
but dwell cosily in couples. Except the mosquitos,
troublesome to newcomers as we painfully experienced,
the insect the most annoying is the common house-fly, and
this on account of its vast numbers.

The tarantula, though accused of stinging, does not
inspire any terror ; indeed, as a devourer of flies, he is
rather courted than shunned. We found one on our ar-
rival "domesticated" in our chamber, where he remained
during nearly the whole of our stay. When his legs were
spread out, he covered a space as large as the palm of a
woman's hand. He was stationed on the wall, near the
ceiling ; sometimes, though rarely, moving from one spot
to another. But at length, as he began to show unmis-
takable signs of descending to close quarters, we pre-
sented the end of a pole to him, which he clasped with his
long legs, and in this position we easily put him out of
the window.

But perhaps the insect which most excited our interest
and curiosity is a variety of the spider, who makes his nest
underground and closes it with a perfectly smooth round
lid. The indication of the nest in the garden-paths
we could rarely discover, but they were quickly dis-

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 257

cerned by the sharper eyes of our little cousins. A circle
marked by an extremely fine line, of the circumference of
a shilling, revealed the lid of the nest, which by means
of a pin gently inserted, could easily be raised. This lid is
attached by a strong hinge, formed of a close fine web
to the upper edge of a circular passage leading down
a steep incline to the nest — the nest itself we never saw
— and both are thickly lined with the same web. If the
lid remained raised for a few moments, the spider would
come bustling up his passage, evidently indignant at his
front door being so unceremoniously opened, and pull it
to with what, had any sound been emitted, would have
been a violent bang.

Soon after our arrival at Hazel wood, E went one

night into the garden, to see an opossum in its conven-
tional position, " up a gum-tree," on the higher branches
of which this animal, being nocturnal, was taking its walks
abroad, looking in the moonlight very like a good-sized
cat prowling about in search of prey. Its natural food
are the leaves of the Eucalyptus, but it much prefers
fruit, and is becoming troublesome in orchards and
gardens. Hector, the noble watch-dog, was continually
aroused by the opossums in their nightly depredations,
and so often were the slumbers of the family disturbed
by his loud and prolonged barking, that he was obliged to
be chained up at a distance from the fruit-trees.

The noise the opossum makes in breathing is most
peculiar. When we heard this sound for the first time
in the night, we felt certain some person was snoring
within a few feet of our h^ads. On mentioning this next
morning, we were assured that an opossum must have
come into the veranda! i, which was close to our open
window.

258 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

CHAPTER XIV.

Adelaide to Melbourne — The Eip — Hqbson's Bay — Sandridge — Mel-
bourne — Cabs — Burke and Wills — Female Pastor — Gardens and
Parks — Library and Mtiseum — Townhall — The Block — Voyage to
Sydney — The Gap — Wreck of the 'Dunbar' — Port Jackson —
Sydney — " Southerly Burster."

WK bad fiora the first resolved to start homeward from
Australia before the hottest aiid most trying season of the
year should set in ; and in ample time also to accomplish
the voyage up the Eed Sea, should we decide upon that
route, while the temperature there should be comparatively
cool. Thus by October two-thirds of the period allotted
to our sojourn in the Southern Hemisphere had elapsed.

We now realised how inadequate was the time we had
devoted to a journey embracing objects of interest so
various and abundant ; another year we felt might have
been well employed in studying them, and Australian
summer-heat might have been avoided by spending
February and March in New Zealand. But it was too late
to alter our plans ; and in arranging our approaching tour
in the sister colonies we found it necessary to abandon all
hope of reaching Queensland and New Zealand. Japan
we had, to our sore disappointment, already relinquished.

Our intention now was to proceed to New South Wales,
taking Victoria and Tasmania on our return. But there
is no direct communication by sea between Adelaide and
Sydney, and it was necessary, therefore, to take ship in the
first instance to Melbourne. In deference to advisers
acquainted with the route, we had given up our project of
reaching the capital of Victoria overland, but we still
indulged the hope of driving thither across the country on
our return from Sydney.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 259

Accompanied by E , we started on the 23rd October.

We left the gardens in the zenith of their floral beauty ;
but the vivid hue of the hills was perceptibly fading under
the increasing heat. The weather still maintained its
variable character, and the thermometer had occasionally
reached 90° during the few days preceding our departure,
but the air was dry and buoyant, and we had not found
tin's temperature oppressive.

During our voyage the coast was usually in sight, but
in the early part of it there is little to attract attention.
Towards evening of the 24th we saw at some little distance
inland Mount Gambier, which rises in a curious volcanic
district on the eastern borders of South Australia; and
somewhat later we passed Cape Northumberland, with its
brilliant red and white revolving light, at the western
point of Discovery Bay. By nine o'clock next morning we
were very near Cape Otway, a bold rocky promontory on
the Victorian coast, with a range of hills showing behind
it. From this point our presence would be telegraphed to
both Melbourne and Adelaide, the passage of ships being
thus communicated from various stations along the shore.
Beautifully wooded hills now came in view, among which
glens and gorges indicated the courses of streams making
their way to the sea. Gum-trees, 300 feet high, have been
i'ound in this neighbourhood, and we fancied we could
descry such on even the very tops of the hills.

Hobson's Bay, at the northern extremity of which Mel-
bourne is placed, is ill-designated, the entrance being so
narrow that this great sheet of water is almost a lake. It
measures forty miles in length, and the same distance at
its greatest bieadth, while the mouth is only a mile and a
half wide. We passed the Port Phillip Heads — as the two
heights, Cape Nepean and Cape Lonsdale, on either side
this passage are called — early in the afternoon, and were
duly on the watch for the " Rip." A shoal lies athwart
the entrance to the bay, and it is only in a groove across
its surface that vessels of any size h'nd water enough to
carry them through.

A strong current adds to the inconvenience of this

s2

260 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

limited channel : but we conclude that certain conditions
of wind and tide, not existing to-day, must also be present
to make the passage dangerous or even difficult, as we
found ourselves safe inside, without having been conscious
of anything extraordinary in the motion of the ship, or in
the appearance of the surrounding waves.

We were soon opposite to Queenscliff, an our left, a
favourite watering-place, and the first established in Vic-
toria. Already there was much shipping in sight. Ad-
vancing some miles, the coast, first on one side and then
on the other, was lost to view, and for a time we remained
entirely out of sight of land. Geelong is seated on an
arm of Hobson's Bay, on its western side ; and near the
head of the main inlet are several watering-places, of which
St. Kilda is the nearest to the capital. Not far off shore
lies the Industrial School-ship, * Nelson.'

Victoria does not, like South Australia, repudiate means
of defence, and a turret-ship, the ' Cerberus,' which had
lately successfully achieved crossing the globe, was pointed
out to us, lying in the harbour. The colony has also
maintained for several years a Volunteer force, some
thousands strong, besides a small number of soldiery who
are paid for their services. Nor does she despise fortifica-
tions. A very considerable sum has been spent in erecting
forts at various points in Hobson's Bay, which are mounted
with guns of the newest construction.

It was growing dusk when our voyage of fifty hours
from Adelaide ended. Small vessels go up the River
Yarra to Melbourne, a distance of seven or eight miles ;
but our steamer, the ' Wentworth,' was too large for its
narrow and winding channel, and we disembarked on the
shore of the bay at Sandridge, three miles from Melbourne,
with which it is connected by railway.

The contrast with Port Adelaide struck us at once, in
the comparatively large size and great number of ware-
houses and other places of business lining the quays, while
the shipping in view recalled English ports to mind.

Passengers can step ashore at Sandridge, even from large
vessels ; but as the ' City of Adelaide ' steamer happened

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 261

to be alongside our landing-place, we had to walk across
her. The process of bringing us into the right position to do
so was a long one ; and in the course of it three of her boats,
which had not been moved out of reach of mischief, were
cracked by our davits with just the sound — reminding us
unpleasantly of their fra^ileness — of walnut-shells under
nutcrackers. It was dark before at length we got on shore,
and half-past eight by the time we reached the metro-
politan terminus.

Hobson's Bay was discovered in 1802, and shortly after-
wards was visited by Flinders, who named it Port Phillip,
in honour of the then Governor of New South Wales. No
settlers came, however, until 1835. In 1839 the newly-
formed town of Melbourne contained only 400 inhabitants.
By 1846 these had increased to 12,000, so productive was
the surrounding country, and so favourable to commerce
the capacious harbour.*

But it was to the discovery of gold in 1851 that the
subsequent still more rapid increase of population is
chiefly to be attributed. With its suburbs, Melbourne
numbers now more than 200,000 inhabitants, and claims
to be the eighth city in the empire. Already in 1850
land in Elizabeth Street (in the heart of the commercial
part of the town) sold for 40Z. per foot frontage ; land in
the country was at the same time leased for sheep-runs at
the rate of 2Z. 10s. per annum for every 1000 sheep it
was assessed as capable of feeding.t

Originally a portion of New South Wales, Victoria
received her present name, and obtained her erection into
a distinct province by an Act of the Imperial Government
passed in 1850, which also conferred upon her Legislature,
as upon those of some of her sister colonies, the power of
self-amendment, or more correctly speaking, of self-
development Of this it availed itself in 18o4, when it

* ' The New Colony of Victoria, formerly Port Phillip, together with
some account of the other Australian Colonies.' By John Fitzgerald Leslie
Foster. London, Trelawney Saunders, 1851.

f Ibid.

262 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

created a Legislative Council of thirty members, and a
House of Assembly of seventy-five (now seventy-eight) re-
presentatives, both elective. Members of each House
receive 3UOZ. a year to meet their expenses in attending
Parliament. A property qualification was at first required
in the elected and the electors, but it was abolished in 1857
as regards the Lower House, and this is now returned
by manhood suffrage given by ballot.*

A candidate for a seat in the Council must possess real
property to the amount of 2500Z., or of the annual value
of 250Z. ; while a freehold of 1000Z., or of the annual value
of 100Z., gives a vote for the, Upper House. There is also
what may be called an education franchise of a high
standard — as the privilege of voting is possessed by
graduates of any University in the British dominions, by
barristers, solicitors, legally qualified medical practitioners,
officiating ministers of religion, certificated schoolmasters,
and officers of the army and navy.

Some years ago women in Victoria suddenly found
themselves included in the Parliamentary electoral lists,
and voted accordingly. It was soon discovered that the
insertion of their names was due to a mistake, and means
were speedily taken to prevent them from profiting by it
a second time.

The question of female suffrage was, however, brought
by Mr. Richardson before the Victorian Parliament in
] 873 ; but though obtaining the support of Mr. Higgin-
bottom and other able speakers, it has not yet been
adopted by the Legislature.

Parliament was not sitting when we were in Melbourne,
so that we had not the opportunity of attending its debates.

Our first impression of the Victorian capital was not a
favourable one. The station was almost destitute of lights,
and entirely so of porters ; and we should have fared ill
but for the kindness of two gentlemen among our fellow-

1 Our Colonial Policy^

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 203

travellers, who secured a carriage for us, and conveyed our
luggage to it. The popular name of the carriage they
procured is a "jingle." It resembles a very broad covered
cart, but is open at the back as well as the front ; and
passengers enter either way to take their seats upon the
two benches placed across it back to back, each being
intended for three persons, one of whom is the driver.
Having but two wheels, and the gutters in Melbourne
being deep and broad, these cannot be crossed without so
severely jogging the passengers that there is risk of those
behind tumbling out, and the safeguard is provided of
strong leathern straps for them to hold by. To enable
them to descend by legitimate means from the back to
the foot pavement, the vehicle is drawn up athwart the
street, and they are '• decanted," as this process is called
in Dublin.

Covered waggonettes similar to those in Adelaide
(where no other form of hackney carriage is used), and
excellent hansom cabs stand for hire in the streets of
Melbourne, which are also abundantly supplied with omni-
buses. Many of the latter are, however, waggonettes and
jingles, and how to discover when these were omnibuses
and when they were cabs, remained a mystery to us to
the end of our stay in the colony.

The streets we passed through in our drive of half-a-
mile to our hotel, were wide and had broad footways, and
houses on both sides, lofty and contiguous. They were
fairly but not brilliantly lighted.

Melbourne is, we believe, unique, as a part of the British
Empire, in the possession of a formally appointed female
pastor to one of her congregations. The day following
our arrival, October 26th, was Sunday, and we went to
hear the lady-preacher, who is minister of the Unitarian
Church. Our way thither lay along Collins Street. The
western portion is occupied chiefly with banks and offices ;
then came the most fashionable shops ; further eastward
are elegant private houses and public buildings, including
so many churches that we are at a loss to understand why
Adelaide should, in virtue of her supposed superabundance,

264 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

be nicknamed by her neighbours the " Holy City." The
Treasury Chambers, a handsome block, stands across the
eastern end of the street, and an effective site not far
from it is occupied by a monument to the exploring party
which left Melbourne on the 20th of August, 1860, with the
purpose of making its way across the continent. Its chief,
Mr. Burke, and the second in command, Mr. Wills, reached
the Gulf of Carpentaria, and were on their way home, when
death from fatigue and starvation, to which others of
the expedition had already succumbed, overtook them.
King, the third in authority, fell into the friendly hands of
natives, who had also shown great kindness to Burke and
Wills, and to their care during several months he owed
his life. He was at length discovered by a rescue party,
headed by Mr. Alfred Howitt.* Among the illustrative
groups sculptured on the monument the humanity of the
blacks is commemorated. Near to the Treasury Chambers
is a building which, seen from Collins Street, looked plain
even to unsightliness at the first glance, and we assumed
it must be the gaol, and marvelled it should have been
allotted so commanding a position; but we soon dis-
covered that we were looking at the unfinished Houses of
Parliament, of which the beautiful facade was turned away
from us.

The Roman Catholic Cathedral, well placed on high
ground, is a noble edifice. Just opposite, a notice at the
entrance to a modest little church to the effect that service
there was conducted by Martha Turner, assured us it was
the place of worship we sought. Miss Turner's quiet and
deeply reverent demeanour, her sweet voice, and excellent
delivery, are favourable to the satisfactory discharge of
her solemn office, while she seemed also to possess the in-
tellectual and spiritual gifts still more essential to success.

In the afternoon we drove through an extensive suburb
resembling that of an important English town, and a

* An interesting narrative of this and of other exploring expeditions
will be found in Mr. Anthony Forster'a valuable work, entitled ' South
Australia, its Progress and Prosperity.' London, Sampson Low and Co.,
1866.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 265

striking contrast to the rural surroundings of Adelaide, to
visit a friend living three or four miles out of Melbourne.
The house, in style apparently on a level with many in
its neighbourhood, was of two or three storeys, with gas
and water laid on ; and all the appointments were those of
a handsome middle-class residence at home, except that
it possessed four baths instead of the one we still think a
luxury in England. Our hostess spoke of it as an old
house (built ten or twelve years ago !), and very inferior
to those erected at the present day. Until recently, she
said, every one looked forward to going " home " to end
their days; but people are beginning now to settle here
for life, and are in consequence building themselves fine
mansions.

In our drive we accompanied or met great numbers of
conveyances of all kinds full of family parties, giving the
impression of a continental holiday -making Sunday, rather
than of the sober English one observed in South Australia.
In the evening we returned to Melbourne by a local rail-
way, almost encircling the city.

October 27th. The ' City of Adelaide,' by which we
were to proceed to Sydney (with, we trust, her boats re-
paired or replaced) would not, we learnt, start till late at
night, and we occupied the intervening time in seeing as
much as possible of Melbourne. Her main streets are of
great width, and all cross at right angles; but, carried
over undulating ground, they present a series of gentle
ascents and descents which vary the otherwise uniform
straightness of their lines, and give them even a certain
picturesqueness ; while their great length has a really
grand effect at night, when from the higher parts of
the city the rows of lamps are seen extending sometimes
for miles into the distance. Ample space was originally
left between the streets for large gardens ; but the value
of land has long since caused them to be sacrificed, and
the ground thus obtained is now occupied by parallel
streets of lesser size. Thus each main thoroughfare has
its corresponding secondary one ; as Collins Street, Little
Collins Street, Bourke Street, Little Bourke Street, &c.

266 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

The peculiar features of Melbourne, however, are the
broad gutters or surface-drains bordering her roadways, and
the foot-bridges — each a low iron arch— at every crossing.
These drains are abundantly flushed with water by arti-
ficial means, but a violent storm of rain will in a few
minutes, in the lower part of the city, convert the rivulet
ordinarily flowing through them to a rapid river two or
three yards wide, dangerous even to human life. We were
told that a woman in process of being " decanted " from a
jingle had had her baby jerked out of her lap into such a
stream, and it was swept away to the Yarra and drowned
before it could be rescued. Vehicles cannot of course pass
rapidly through the gutters without scattering a good deal
of water about ; and a police regulation forbids these being
traversed at more than a foot-pace, a regulation, as might
be expected, not infrequently disregarded. We were told,
however, in all gravity by a citizen of Melbourae, that
when the municipal treasury happens to be low, policemen
are stationed at the crossings until a sufficient number of
offenders have been caught, carried off to the police office,
and fined to bring the funds up to the required level.

We had a hasty glimpse to-day of the Public Library,
Museum and Picture Gallery, all occupying one very large
and very handsome building, and of the Towuhall, an im-
posing edifice, the main apartment of which will seat 4300
persons, but in our opinion not equal in elegance to that
at Adelaide. The organ, recently erected, is so large,
and imported goods are so heavily taxed in Victoria, that
the duty alone upon this instrument amounted to between
QQOL and 7001

We had a rapid walk through the Fitzroy Gardens,
laid out with much taste and of sufficient age for the
beautiful trees and shrubs to have acquired considerable
size. Among them are feru-trees eighteen or twenty feet
high.

Melbourne has no belt of reserved lands, but several
public parks are scattered among her suburbs ; and besides
the Fitzroy Gardens, in localities distant from each other,
are the Horticultural aud Botanical Gardens. In the

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 267

cultivation of the latter the promotion of scientific know-
ledge has, until lately, been the predominant object ; but
we understand that beauty is now to be combined with
utility.

To " do the Block " corresponds in Melbourne to driving
in Hyde Park. It consists in promenading up and down
a certain portion of the pavement on one side of Collins
Street, at about four o'clock in the afternoon, when the
display of costume is said to be marvellous. There are
Melbourne ladies, we were told, who have their dresses
from Paris, and do not think three hundred guineas too
large a sum to pay on special occasions. No signs of such
extravagance, however, met our eyes to-day.

Liverpool, — if one could imagine Liverpool with an
atmosphere as clear as that of Paris,- — is often recalled to
mind by Melbourne. She has, indeed, almost a metro-
politan air, but just falls short of it. The variety of
nationalities represented in her population is much greater
than at Adelaide. We never, indeed, met aborigines
in her streets, but many other un-English physiognomies
are there, including that of the Chinese. The Scottish
element appeared, however, to predominate, its accent
greeting the ear almost as generally as in Edinburgh
herself.

In the evening we drove down to Sandridge, along a broad
road planted with elm-trees on either side, and embarked
on the 'City of Adelaide/ having already learnt to our
satisfaction that the boats Jiad been repaired. It was a
lovely moonlight night, and we stayed late chatting
on deck ; but had been in our berths some time before the
vessel sailed, between one and two o'clock on the morning
of the 28th.

To-day our course led us through the whole length of
Bass's Straits, traversing in our way the line of rocky
islands which here stretch across the strait from the
Victorian to the Tasmanian shores, believed to be a con-
tinuation of the Australian Alps, which apparently termi-
nate at Wilson's Promontory, the southernmost point of
the continent. One of these islands, called Eodondo,

268 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

domelike in form, rises abruptly from the sea to a height
of 1200 feet, reminding us somewhat, only on a much
larger scale, of the Bass Rock. To the landward lay bare
rocks on which herds of seals were basking in the sun.
Alarmed, perhaps, by our proximity (for the captain was
so good-natured as to have the vessel steered towards the
shore, that we might the better see these animals) we
could distinguish them through the glass slipping hastily
into the sea. Hard by is an inlet called Sealer's Cove, in
which vessels sometimes seek shelter during the storms
prevalent on this coast. We were amused to hear that
refuge had thus been recently taken in the cove, not for
the sake of the ship or of its human freight, but to avoid
distressing some valuable horses on their way to the races
at Melbourne.

October 29th. — The coast-line becomes very beautiful,
range behind range of mountains rising to view, not lofty,
but fine in form, with here and there an eminence of con-
siderable height. For many miles before reaching Cape
Howe, the terminating point of Victoria, the coast is richly
wooded, and the hill-sides are broken by lovely gulleys.
A gap in the forest, seen distinctly from the sea, where
the trees have been cut down for a great distance inland,
marks the boundary between Victoria and New South
Wales.

On Thursday morning, October 30th, the hills and
gulleys had vanished, and were replaced by reddish cliffs,
having a castellated appearance, and very level at the
top. It was their likeness to the coast of South Wales at
home which suggested to Captain Cook the name he gave
to the newly-discovered land. We passed the entrance to
Botany Bay, so called by Cook when he discovered the
inlet in 1770, from the beautiful flowers which Sir Joseph
Banks, who accompanied him in his expedition, found on
its shores. Botany Bay is, perhaps, the spot on the whole
continent of Australia most widely known by name in
England, and yet the occupation which made it thus
notorious was of a very transitory nature. The first con-
signment of convicts arrived there in 1788. Fresh water,

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 269

however, could not be obtained, and, after a few months'
sojourn, the place was abandoned, and a spot at the head
of Port Jackson, where Sydney now stands, was chosen in
its stead. Curiously enough, the city is at the present
time supplied with water from that very locality where the
lack of it was the means of bringing her into existence.

About a mile before we readied the entrance to Sydney
Harbour, we passed a slight inward curve in the rocky
cliffs, the scene of a terrible shipwreck, which took place
in August, 1857. The captain of the ' Dunbar,' a vessel
containing amongst its passengers many leading colonists
returning home from Europe, mistook in the dark this
curve for the expected channel, and steered liis ship full
upon the rocks. It struck violently, and at once became
a total wreck. Only one man on board escaped with life.
He was cast upon a ledge of rock high' above the sea, and
remained there till the next day, when he was discovered
and rescued from his perilous position.

An opening between the precipitous cliffs, called the
North and South Heads, gives access to Port Jackson,
so named after one of Cook's sailors, who discovered the
entrance. Cook himself is said never to have sailed into
the harbour. The area of Port Jackson proper, now gene-
rally called Sydney Harbour, measures nine square miles,
and that of Middle Harbour, one of its arms, three square
miles, while the coast-line of the whole is fifty-four miles
in length.* At the time of the wreck of the 'Dunbar'
there was but one lighthouse at the entrance, and that
was upon the South Head. Under the supposition that
the captain may have been misled by the single light,
another has since been placed there, in the hope of pre-
venting the repetition of so terrible a catastrophe.

Ever since we landed in Australia we had heard the
beauty of Sydney Harbour extolled. Thus our expecta-
tions were highly raised ; and they were not disappointed.
The sky was cloudless ; and notwithstanding a thin haze of
smoke blown off shore, Sydney stood out clearly on the

* ' Industrial Trogress of New South Wales,' p. 483.

270 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

heights, four miles distant, as soon as we had entered
the Heads; while on the innumerable promontories and
bays at her feet beautiful houses peeped out from among
a luxuriance of trees, many of them being the stately
Norfolk Island jine.

As we steamed up the harbour, new beauties re-
vealing themselves at every moment, various objects of
inter< st were pointed out to us by our fellow-passengers.
Vauclusp, the lovely grounds of the late Mr. Wentworth,
and where his body lies buried; the spot on Manly Beach
where Prince Alfred was shot; a low rock, with what looked
like boulders scattered over it, called, not very elegantly,
the Sow and Pigs ; Fort Denison, Fort Macquarie, Lady
Macquarie's Chair — a seat cut in the rock overlook-
ing the harbour; the handsome residence on a wooded
height of Mr. Fairfax, proprietor of the ' Sydney Morning
Herald ; ' Government House ; and the Botanic Gar-
dens, with their wide-spreading lawns which slope to the
water's edge. The aspect of the whole is very English,
for the shores of the bay are not more lofty than many
on our coast ; the verdure is like that at home, and the
houses and churches have an intensely British appear-
ance. As we neared the city, some clouds appearing to
the southward indicated a change of weather, and our
fellow-passengers predicted a storm, called a " Southerly
burster."

Sydney has been likened to a hand with the fingers
spread out, the intervals between representing the inlets
of the harbour, which penetrate far into the town. The
water is so deep close to the shore that, in former days,
when the merchants' residences were built on the quays,
it was said the bowsprits of their ships might come in at
their drawing-room windows.

The port was busy with shipping, and boats and small
steamers were flitting al out in all directions. On land-
ing we drove, through streets which looked so familiar,
•we could have believed ourselves in any seaport town at
home, to Petty's Hotel. It stands upon a height. From
our balcony we could look down through trees upon

WHA T WE SAW IN A USTRA LI A. 271

shipping and water sparkling in the sunshine, and catch
glimpses of the beautiful bays round about the harbour.

In the afternoon we drove out, taking a hansom, the
universal cab of Sydney, but superior in comfort to its
London prototype, being more roomy, and generally lined
with a clean linen cover. The horses also are good, and
rarely look over-worked ; but the price is somewhat higher
than at home. The charge is by time — the minimum
being, during the day, one and sixpence for half-an-hour ;
and somewhat more at night. There are also large closed
carriages for hire in the streets, of which the fare is
five shillings an hour : and there is besides an excellent
omnibus service.

After our sojourn of many months among roads at
right-angles, it was delightful to drive along the more
irregular and curved streets of Sydney. These, together
with the home-like look of many of the houses, gave so
genuine an English appearance to the city that, but fur
the brilliant atmosphere, and the vegetation characteristic
of a much hotter climate than ours, we could have
believed ourselves back in the dear old country. The street
cries the physiognomy of the population, and now and
then, unhappily, a street beggar confirmed this impression,
which remained unchanged during our six-weeks' visit.

In the night we were awakened by a peal of thunder
like a discharge of artillery. Three similar claps, with
almost contemporaneous lightning, followed ; rain fell for
a short time — and the storm was over ! We experienced
several such storms ; though sometimes the tempest
would last for many hours, the rain pouring down in
vast quantities.

Next morning the sky was cloudy and the air close.
About noon we started in one of the little steam ferry-
boats, plying in all directions about the harbour, for Bal-
maiii, a suburb distant two miles by water, but four or tive
by land. When we embarked, the harbour was calm;
five minutes later we were surrounded by large waves ;
we turned a point and were in smooth water ; we turned
another, the \viud seemed to blow a hurricane ; and

272 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

ten minutes later, when we reached our destination, it was
with some difficulty our boat was brought up to the
landing-place. A little rain fell at intervals, accompanied
by a few violent gusts of wind, as we crossed some open
ground leading to the house whither we were bound ; but
when, in less than an hour, we returned to the landing-
place the wind had fallen, and the harbour was as smooth as
a millpond. We had experienced the Southerly burster
predicted by our fellow-passengers the clay before.

The air remained close and muggy. The storm had not
been sufficient to clear the atmosphere (sometimes the
Southerly bursters are much more violent), but next
morning clouds and moisture had vanished, and the
weather was perfect.

New South Wales received powers of partial self-govern-
ment as far back as 1842, by virtue of an Act of the
Imperial Parliament passed in that year; these were
further extended by a second Act in 1850, and were
completed by a third in 1855.

The form of government, though bearing a general
resemblance to that of other Australian colonies, yet pre-
sents some essential differences. The Legislative Council
is not an elective body, but consists of thirty-six life-
members appointed by the Governor. The franchise for
the Lower House is of two kinds — property bestowing
one, residence the other; but electors possessing both
qualifications can only exercise a single vote in one
place.

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA. 273

CHAPTER XV.

Transportation — Prison discipline — Mr. Parkes — Darlinghurst Gaol —
Industrial and Reformatory Schools — The ' Vernon ' — Biloela.

TRANSPORTATION from the mother country to New South
Wales ceased in 1840, and since the expiration of the
sentences under which the last convicts caine out, she has
had nominally her own criminals alone to deal with; but
when it is remembered that so late as 1836, out of 100,000
inhabitants, more than half were convicts,* it will be
evident that the criminal element transmitted from home
must be long in passing away, and that even now a
certain proportion of those under punishment for offences
committed in the colony are in fact British expirees.
How to deal with a criminal population so far exceeding
any normal proportion has been a terrible problem for this
young country, and its solution has been retarded by the
legacy of mistaken views of prison discipline which
obtained too frequently in the administration of our
colonial convict system.

The unsatisfactory state of the prisons of Sydney,
Paramatta, and Penrith, at the beginning of 1861, caused
the appointment by the Colonial Parliament of a Select
Committee of Inquiry. Their Report, signed by the
chairman, Mr. Henry Parkes, confirmed the evil repu-
tation these gaols had acquired, while the state of things
revealed at the chief penal establishment of the colony, on
Cockatoo Island, in Sydney Harbour, was horrible in the
extreme. " The principles of criminal treatment,"
continues the Report, "laid down by Lord Brougham,

' The New Colony of Victoria,' Ac.

274 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

Mr. Recorder Hill, M. de Metz, and similar authorities,
appear to be unknown to the persons in charge of the
criminal population of this colony ;" and subsequently it
declares " that great improvement in the whole prison
system of the colony is urgently demanded, and that any
step short of its complete revision would be ineffectual."*

Many of the recommendations set forth in the report
were acted upon, though, it would appear not very promptly.
In 1867 the Governor of the colony issued regulations
which, while providing for an improved and uniform,
management of its gaols, embodied in the discipline
to be observed some features of the system founded by Sir
Walter Crofton upon the principles laid down by Captain
Maconochie, — thus brought into operation in the very
quarter of the globe whence they had originated !

These regulations classified the prisoners according to
the legal character of their offences and length of sentence,
and it placed debtors and another most pitiable class
of inmates — supposed lunatics, detained until their lunacy
can be ascertained — under distinct categories. Offenders
sentenced to penal servitude were to form three divisions —
A, B, and C. The women of all divisions were to fulfil
the whole of their sentences at Darlinghurst Prison, in
Sydney ; but the male divisions, A, B, and C, were to occupy
respectively the gaols of Berrima, Paramatta,t and Dar-
linghurst, though not to the exclusion of other classes of
prisoners. In the first they were to be in separate confine-
ment, in the next in association, in the third their position
would be still further ameliorated. Advance from stage to
stage, however, would not only be retarded by bad conduct,
but this might even cause relegation to an earlier one.

One of the recommendations of the Select Committee
was that " an Inspector of Prisons should be appointed at
a salary that would secure the services of a man of ability

* ' Keport from the Select Committee on the Public Prisons in Sydney
and Cumberland.' Sydney : Thomas Kichards. Government Printer,
1861.

t Berrima is seventy milos, and Paramatta fourteen from the capital.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 275

and high character," and in Mr. Harold Maclean, the
gentleman now filling that office, the Government seem
to have obtained these essential qualifications. Since his
appointment he has visited England, and has given the
result of the study he then made of our penal institu-
tions in a valuable report to the New South Wales
Parliament, which has led to further improvements, now
in course of introduction into the prison discipline of the
country.

There are between thirty and forty gaols in New South
Wales, but more than half, called police gaols, are very
small, and of the remainder, the three convict prisons
were all we could hope to have time to visit.

Mr. Parkes, who is now, as he has frequently been
before, Prime Minister or Colonial Secretary, as this
member of the Cabinet is called in New South Wales, has
kindly afforded us every facility for inspecting the various
institutions we desire to see. With a letter of intro-
duction from him to the Governor of Darlinghurst Gaol,
we presented ourselves at its gates on November 1st, in
the exquisite freshness of a summer morning noted in
F— — 's journal as " the loveliest day I ever knew." The
prison stands on a high open spot in Darlinghurst, one of
the fashionable quarters of the city, from which it takes
its name. It has been built at various times, upon the
panopticon plan, but the original design has not been
completed. A very pretty chapel is now in course of
erection within the walls. The cleanliness and order of
the gaol are excellent.

Here are confined prisoners of both sexes and of different
categories, viz. : 1st, labour prisoners, those, namely, under
penal servitude, corresponding to convicts with us ; 2nd,
confines, who are under short sentences not involving hard
labour ; and 3rd, a few boys, some of whom are very young.
These are, as far as circumstances permit, separated from
the adults, and are in prison simply because there is no
male reformatory in New South Wales, and the industrial
schools do not receive children convicted of criminal
offences. We had reached the prison at so early an hour

T 2

276 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

that the Governor was engaged, and Mr. Maclean, who
was so good as to meet us there at Mr. Parkes' request,
had not arrived ; thus the chief warden was our escort
during the first part of our visit. On asking him if he
had ever known a boy improved by imprisonment, he
emphatically answered, "No!" He added, with great
earnestness, "This is the worst city in the world for
young females. I am an old soldier, and have been in
the West Indies and many other places, but I never knew
any so bad as this."

Criminal lunatics are detained in this prison, and also
in some instances, unhappily, lunatics who are not
criminals. This, however, is owing partly to a defect in
the law, which, it is to be hoped, will soon be amended ;
and partly to the strange fact, as it was alleged, that some
country magistrates are ignorant of the existence of an
appointed Keceiving-house at Sydney for these unfor-
tunate creatures, and still commit them to gaol for
safe-keeping.

The gaol contained to-day about 500 prisoners, much
exceeding its number of separate cells, so that frequently
three prisoners are placed in one. They sleep separately
on wooden tressels spread with a mattress. Mr. Mac-lean
expressed strongly his opinion of the evil of such crowding.
He hopes to get the gaol sufficiently enlarged to prevent
it, and also to afford separate cells by day to certain
classes of prisoners. At present all (except that the sexes
are, of course, divided) eat and work in association. The
confines do the work of the gaol, the labour-prisoners
being wholly occupied in remunerative employment. For
the women this did not appear to be laborious. It
consists in oakum-picking (two pounds being, we under-
stood, a clay's task), and sewing, the more skilful being
employed in fine work, the learners on " slops " and
clothes for the inmates of Randwick, a large school for
orphan and destitute children.

Besides a portion who are engaged on alterations to the
gaol, the male labour-prisoners work in large airy shops,
at a variety of trades, the chief of which is mat-making.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 277

The teachers are paid 10s. a day, and are not prison
officers. The men did not, we thought, work with hearti-
ness, the " Government stroke," well known at home, being
very perceptible here ; and they were brought into such
close contact by their occupation, that private conver-
sation must be perfectly easy. Sometimes, too, no one
but themselves we believe is present.

The dress resembles that usually worn by prisoners at
home, and perhaps to this fact may be partly attributed
these men having, to a certain extent, the aspect of our
criminal class; still the manly bearing and good coun-
tenances, which struck us in the South Australian gaol,
were not wholly absent here. " May I grow, Sir ? " — a
question which much amused us when we heard of it in the
Irish convict gaols, is, we conclude, also permitted and
answered in the affirmative here, as the hair and moustache
of the men are not cropped and shaved when the end of
their sentence approaches.

There are six cells for prisoners condemned to death,
suggesting the awful frequency of capital punishment
provided for when the gaol was built. Executions (which
take place within its walls) are now much diminished in,
number. Until the present system was inaugurated, in-
cluding the removal to other prisons of the men under-
going the first and second stages of penal servitude,
insubordination prevailed to such an extent at Darling-
hurst, that the Governor could not reckon on his life from
day to day ; and it would have been unsafe, he told us, to
bring the men out of their cells to receive schooling.
School is now attended, but only by those who cannot
read and write ; and of these only by the young, amount-
ing to about a quarter of the whole number of prisoners.
Instruction is given in the day-time, and consequently
during working hours. Female prisoners are taught by
the schoolmaster, a female officer being always present.

There is no Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society, but a
few ladies visit the women, and help in finding places for
them when liberated. Mr. Maclean himself performs this

278 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

part towards the men, but wishes for volunteer help.* He
gives them a gratuity when he considers it deserved, and
likely to be useful. There is some repugnance in New
South Wales to ex-prisoners, but not enough to prevent
their getting employment. A considerable proportion go
to the diggings, whence they not infrequently return to
gaol ; and, unhappily, another considerable proportion, on
quitting prison, resume a life of crime.

It is to be hoped, however, that the improvements now
being introduced in their treatment while prisoners, will,
before many years have passed, tell favourably on their
career after liberation. Much, however, before this can
be counted upon, remains to be done in improving the
accommodation for the prisoners, and means for their
effective supervision ; still more in the development of
the Crofton system in their treatment. Though its lead-
ing principles have been adopted, their application is
very incomplete. Further legislation is needed, and
larger grants of money will be required ; and any action
here, dependent upon Parliament, is proverbially slow.
A bill may be introduced into the Legislature, and may
be satisfactorily accomplishing its stages, when, lo ! a
" crisis " arrives. Out go the Ministry, and everything
has to be begun over again.

The prisoners here, as in South Australia, are locked
in unlighted cells at six o'clock, to economise warder
power. They are allowed books to read, but no writing
materials.

Food for the labour-prisoners is abundant; but con-
fines have much less, and those under very short sen-
tences have meat once a week only. Tobacco is given
to the men, but withheld in case of bad conduct. The
privilege of seeing i'riends monthly is likewise withheld
for the same cause.

Marks are now employed to some extent, but the system

* Since our return 'to England, we have heard of the formation of a
Prisoners' Aid Society.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 279

is not yet fully organised. Good conduct, which includes
industry, operates to shorten imprisonment to the extent
of two months in each year of the sentence ; and, on the
other hand, the loss of good marks for one day negatives
the remission of two days.

Exclusive of the condemned cells, there are six punish-
ment cells, which can, on occasion, be made perfectly
dark ; this is never done in the case of women, but
detention in the dark cell may be inflicted on a man for
seven days — in one case, at least, it has been endured for
fourteen in succession, a prisoner committing a fresh
offence immediately on release, for which he was straight-
way incarcerated again. The occupant has the means of
ringing a bell, and is visited daily by .the governor, the
chaplain, and the warders.

We were unable to obtain statistics showing the results
of the present system of prison discipline. Mr. Maclean,
who, besides performing the duties of sheriff, has nearly
forty gaols to inspect, scattered over the large area of
New South Wales, has not had time to prepare reports
upon these institutions. It is to be hoped that he may be
enabled, by fresh arrangements, to accomplish this very
important duty.*

Next day was Sunday, and we attended the afternoon
service — a full choral one — in the cathedral, which Syd-
ney alone, of the colonial capitals we visited, possesses ;
one is almost completed at Hobart Town, and at Adelaide
one is building, but Melbourne bestows this title on a
parish church.

Sydney Cathedral stands somewhat back from George
Street, upon an open space, surrounded by well-kept turf
and shrubs, and is built, in the later decorated style of
Gothic architecture, of the fine hard stone brought from

* Within the last few months his duties have bflen divided; Mr.
Charles Cowper has been appointed sheriff, and Mr. Maclean is able now
to devote his whole time to the arduous duties of the Inspector-General-
ship of Prisons.

280 WHA T WE fSA W IN A USTRALIA.

the neighbouring quarries of Pyrmont. Its rich creamy-
brown hue adds much to the beauty of the public build-
ings here, and to the goodly appearance also of many
large warehouses constructed of the same material.

The exterior of the cathedral is not finished, as the
towers have yet to be added, but the inside appeared
quite complete, and struck us as elegant in proportion
and decorated in excellent taste. The painted windows,
many of which are gifts, are well executed ; and the
organ, presented by a number of ladies, is a fine one.

Near the cathedral stands the town-hall, which, however,
is not only unfinished, but its construction is at present at
a standstill. The walls, apparently, are complete, and are
elaborately sculptured ; but the windows are unglazed,
and the roof is wanting. The building, in fact, gives one
the impression of having been gutted by fire — some
ethereal fire unaccompanied by disfiguring smoke.

A very fine post-office is in course of erection in the
busiest part of Sydney, to replace one which had become
too small ; and the business of the department is mean-
while carried on in a temporary single-storied wooden
building in Wyuyard Square, where it suggests the idea
of a gigantic bush-shanty, put down in the midst of the
city.

On the morning of the 3rd, E , who had undertaken

to post our letters for home, was amused with the scene
of life and bustle the building presented, both inside and
out, under stress of despatching the English mail. Several
small tables placed in front, were covered with to-day's
issue of the ' Sydney Morning Herald,' ready folded, put
up in wrappers, and stamped ; while close by were pens
and ink wherewith to address them. Doubtless the sale
of copies was greatly increased by the facilities thus
provided for their despatch.

On the 4th November we went with Mr. Parkes and
the Colonial Treasurer to different points in the harbour,
where are placed the Industrial and Reformatory schools,
established in 1867, under the provisions of an Act of the

WHA T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA. 28 1

Colonial Parliament, modelled on the one of the Imperial
Legislature, with this important difference : — the English
Act contemplates that schools will be established by
voluntary managers, while although that of New South
Wales authorizes voluntary action, the Executive is ex-
pected to initiate them. The result has been, that both
the Industrial Schools existing in that colony, and the
Reformatory for girls, have been founded by the Govern-
ment, and are wholly under official management.

Starting in the Government cutter from the Circular
Quay, which lies, as it were, between the first and second
lingers of the outstretched hand, we rowed about a mile
to the ' Vernoo,' an old East Indiaman, which lies near
the Botanic Gardens.

The ' Vernon ' contains 100 boys, but can accommodate
260. We were agreeably impressed with the exquisite
cleanliness of the ship, and the frank open counte-
nances of the lads. We found them divided into parties
of twenty-five, occupied in school, or in various trades
required in the institution. They assist in making their
own clothing, as well as boots for the girls' Industrial
School, and perform all the " house-work." When the
ship, which occasionally changes her position in the har-
bour, lay near to some unused gardens belonging to the
Government, the lads were employed to cultivate them,
and produced all the vegetables required on board. The
well-behaved wear good-conduct badges, and those who
can be trusted are allowed to go on errands to Sydney.

For their meals, they are divided into messes of twelve,
presided over by a captain, one of their own body, who is
responsible for the good conduct of his party, and is
" broken " if they behave ill. One punishment for bad
conduct was new to us in educational institutions. Cul-
prits are put on the " black-list," which involves the
performance of disagreeable and dirty work.

On quitting the school, the greater proportion of the
boys are apprenticed, on a system similar to that which
prevails in South Australia, — generally for three years, —

282 WHA T WE SAW IN A US TRALIA.

either to trades or to service. Though half are trained
for sailors, very few follow that profession.

In April 1873, a Royal Commission was appointed by
the Governor of the colony to inquire into its public
charities, those institutions, namely, which derive their
funds either partially or entirely from the State. The
Commissioners in their interesting and exhaustive report,
take into consideration difficulties which stand in the way
of the lads going to sea, and point out means by which
they may be removed.*

The boys include Protestants and Roman Catholics, and
all, weather permitting, attend on Sundays their respective
services on shore. They are also visited and instructed
on board by clergy of their different denominations, who
volunteer for this purpose.

Between its foundation in 1867 till July 1873, the
date of its last report, 300 boys have passed through the
school. As no efficient supervision is exercised over
them after quitting the * Vernon,' it is impossible accu-
rately to estimate the results of their training. A large
proportion have been altogether lost sight of; and less
than a third of the whole number who have been ap-
prenticed are absolutely known to be doing well ; more-
over, the sentences they receive are much shorter than it
is customary to pass in England, and certainly too short, it
seemed to us, to allow time for good training. These
circumstances help to account for the small measure of
success the institution can be shown to have achieved.

Quitting the 'Vernon,' we rowed two or three miles
eastward to Cockatoo Island, where the Industrial School
for girls is established, enjoying on our way a variety of
lovely views, which deepened our impression of the ex-
tent and beauty of both the city and the harbour. Every
now and then we crossed the entrance to a bay or an
inlet often running many miles inland, while the coast

* Report of the Eoyal Commissioners, appointed in April, 1873, to
inquire into the state of the Public Charities of New South Wales.

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA. 283

was exquisitely varied. Villas and gardens contrasted
with bold rocks of rich yellow, or red, or deep grey, and
these again with masses of dark foliage, where " primeval
forest and snakes," said Mr. Parkes, '* had it all their own
way." The sky was bright blue, and the water sparkled
under the fresh breeze. The scene recalled the Cove
of Cork, when, several years ago, under not unsimilar
circumstances, we rowed from point to point, to visit the
different convict prisons upon its shores.

Cockatoo Island, nearly square in form, measuring
perhaps a quarter of a mile in each direction, lies across
the entrance to the gulf which receives the Paramatta
River. The school was originally established in old
military barracks, close to the town of Newcastle, at the
mouth of the Hunter River, sixty miles north-east of
Sydney. There, however, it had been a failure. The
character of the building, and its position, where the
inmates could be overlooked from the adjacent streets, ren-
dered the maintenance of discipline impossible. Riots even
occurred, and removal was considered the only remedy.
Cockatoo Island was chosen as the new location ; but this
site was really no better than the old one. The building
allotted to the school had obtained a terrible notoriety as
a convict gaol. The home influences essential to the
wholesome training of girls, the very lack of which had
brought them to the school, are impossible of attainment
within the gloomy walls of a prison. Doubts, indeed, of
the suitableness of the place were entertained at the time
even of removal, but no better one was immediately
available, and proximity to a town, at least, would be
avoided. It was hoped, too, that by abandoning a name
connected in the public mind with all that is evil in gaol-
life, and resuming the aboriginal appellation of the island,
— Biloela — prison associations would be forgotten, and
the girls would escape the dreaded reproach of having
" been at Cockatoo."

Not only, however, did the evils already described
attach to the locality, but the Government dock, bringing

284 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

necessarily large numbers of sailors to the spot, is upon
this island. Three hundred men, we heard, had been
there a few days before our visit. The school premises are
on high ground overlooking the dock, from which they are
divided by a low wall or fence, and the presence of a
policeman is necessary to prevent sailors and school-girls
from crossing the boundary.

Landing at a minute stone pier, a steep rocky path led
us to a heavy door, which was unlocked for our admission.
Passing through it, we found ourselves among the old
prison buildings, scattered over a wide space, but sin-
gularly devoid of the neatness and order which usually
somewhat relieve the gloom of a gaol. The girls, some
of whom were enjoying an interval of play between school
and dinner, looked healthy, and the younger ones were
tolerably neat in their dress, but the expression of their
countenances struck us as inferior to that of the boys we
had seen on the * Vernon.' The appearance of the older
girls was in all respects most discreditable to the school.

The work of the institution, including the care of two or
three cows, is performed by the inmates, but no washing or
employment of any kind is taken in, and it was evident to
us that the elder girls had not hard work enough to do.
The diet is abundant — excessive, indeed, to our English
ideas, but we were told that a proposal to limit the food
of these children to what would be considered enough for
them at home, would upset a ministry in New South
Wales !

The girls never attend public worship; there is no
church, either Catholic or Protestant, on the island, and
no measures have been taken to convey them on shore.
Ministers of both denominations visit the school occa-
sionally, and conduct services there for their respective
flocks ; but the humanizing influence of joining a con-
gregation in worship is entirely wanting.

The New South Wales Act of 1867, wisely permits the
retention, until the age of eighteen, of girls or boys
committed to Industrial Schools. For want, however, of

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 285

the means of classifying, which three or four small institu-
tions would afford, the effect of this provision is, as regards
the girls, disastrous, by bringing those together who should
never be intermingled. Thus we found that of the ninety-
eight present to-day, some are little children whose sole
qualification for admission consisted in their destitution,
while others are almost young women whose loose con-
duct has led to their committal. All are mixed together,
without classification or efficient supervision.

At half-past six in the evening the girls are locked up
in the dormitories, " essentially gaol-like and cheerless.
Stone floors, hewn from the solid rock — all worn away by
the tread of the countless criminals, who for years
occupied the island — grated iron doors, with massive
locks and heavy bolts ; instead of windows, grated aper-
tures high in the blank walls, allowing no outlook upon
the scene beyond — all must constantly impress upon the
minds of the children the prison-like character of their
life."*

These gloomy chambers are at so great a distance from
the houses inhabited by the sub-matrons, that they can
hear nothing that goes on among the girls. None come
near them ; but at nine o'clock it is the duty of the head
matron to extinguish a lamp which till then burns in a
small lobby forming the entrance to each pair of dormi-
tories. The light penetrates but a very little way into the
tlooiny interior, and these young creatures, we were told,
uddle and press against the bars of which their prison
doors are made, to get as near to it as they can. Thus
left to themselves for hours together, with neither super-
vision or occupation, good and bad intermingled, their
outrageous conduct gave us no surprise. Last night ten
among their number, first barricading their door, tore the
straw out of their mattresses, and set it alight in the
middle of the floor.

Yesterday evening we were admiring from our balcony

* Public Charities Commission Report.

286 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

the brilliancy of the moon as it glittered upon the harbour,
little imagining the wild insubordination among these miser-
able girls it was revealing. The smoke, made visible by the
moonlight, issuing through the shingle roof, gave notice of
what was going on, and the superintendent (who, strange to
say, is a man), in terror lest the building should be burnt,
had to implore the girls to let him enter the dormitory to
extinguish the fire. Outbreaks of a similar or worse
description have not been infrequent. To-day we saw the
culprits imprisoned in their dormitories, some half-dressed,
others wrapped in blankets, awaiting judgment for their
offence.

It is the intention of the Government to thoroughly
reorganise the school, removing it at the same time to
a more fitting place, as soon as one can be found. We
believe (April 1875), however, that as yet this intention
has not been carried into effect.

It will be a happy augury for the institution if, in
its contemplated reorganisation, it be found possible to
place it under the care of voluntary managers, subject, of
course, to Government inspection. Then the school may
enjoy the advantage of being directed by persons under-
taking the duty from love of the work, and not merely
because it falls within their official capacity. Thus also
the institution would be removed from the disturbing
influence of politics.

Within the precincts of the prison, separated from the
Industrial School, there is a Keformatory for girls. It
occupies a small cottage, and to-day has but eight inmates.
The windows unfortunately look on the space frequented
by the pupils of the Industrial School, whose turbulence
is consequently well-known to these children, and the
accommodation is insufficient ; but the frank countenances
and affectionate manner of the girls afforded a striking
contrast to the bearing of those we had just left. The
number is small enough to promote a real family feeling,
and the superintendent appeared to exercise a motherly
influence over her young charges. Here, as on the

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 287

' Vernon,' and in the Biloela Industrial School, the terms
for which the children are sentenced are far too short, and
until a change be effected in this important respect,
besides the radical reform indispensable in the Industrial
School, the beneficent aim of the law under which these
institutions were established will not be attained.

288 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

CHAPTEK XVI.

Public Charities Commission — Sydney University — Affiliated Colleges
— Examinations — Deaf and Dumb Asylum — Benevolent Asylum —
St. Vincent's Hospital — Botanic Gardens — Annuals — Sydney
Free Library — South Head Road — North Shore — Fortifications —
Aboriginal Works of Art — Beauty of the Harbour — Prince of
Wales's Birthday — Picnic at Balmoral.

IN the afternoon the Chairman of the Public Charities
Commission (Mr. Windeyer) called on us. Desirous to
obtain information concerning institutions at home cor-
responding to those now the subject of inquiry here, and
also upon the operation of the boarding-out system both

in England and in South Australia, he asked E and

ourselves to give evidence before the Commission, to which
we assented. Meanwhile he arranged to show us some of
the lions of Sydney, and (on the 5th of November) we went
with him to the University, a noble edifice in the per-
pendicular style, built of the same fine stone which is
used in the construction of the Cathedral, standing in its
own domain of 150 acres, about two miles from the heart
of the city. The close air to-day, and the heavy clouds
which obscured the sun, indicated a hot wind. This
produced a dust-storm, and we saw Sydney enveloped in
a white mist, as we looked towards it from the high
ground on which we stood.

The University of Sydney, incorporated and endowed in
1851, was inaugurated in October of the next year. In
constitution it resembles that of London, having the power
of conferring degrees in arts, law, and medicine, without
requiring residence from the students. An income of
5000Z. a-year has been guaranteed to it by the State. In
1858 a Royal Charter bestowed upon its graduates equality

WHAT WE SAW IN A USTRALIA. 289

in rank and titles with those of [any University in the
United Kingdom. It is, however, a teaching as well as an
examining body. To the zeal and learning of Dr. Woolley,
who for several years held the office of Principal, much of
its success in this department is ascribed ; and great was
its loss in his untimely death by the sinking of the
' London ' in 1866, when, after visiting home, he was on
his return to Australia.

This University does not admit female students, though,
as it has been constituted the official examining body
for the State, women equally with men desiring to obtain
appointments from Government, including teacherships
in schools, are examined here. It " is liberally endowed
with scholarships; and it is possible for the son of the
poorest mechanic to proceed from the primary public
schools to the Grammar School, and thence to the Uni-
versity, free of expense, if he has talent to win the prizes
which pay for his education." * The University is entirely
secular, but " provision has been made for affiliated colleges
of the different religious denominations, with an additional
guarantee from the public funds of one-half the cost of
building each college when the denomination has con-
tributed the other half, and 500/. per annum towards the
salary of each Principal, when duly elected." f

Two Gothic buildings, standing within the domain, are
colleges of this description — one belonging to the Church
of England, the other to the Roman Catholics ; and we
understand that the Wesleyans and Presbyterians are each
projecting one for the accommodation of students belonging
to their own bodies.

The annual University examinations for boys, corre-
sponding to our middle-class examinations at home, were
in progress to-day, and apparently they engrossed the
whole staff of officers. The doorkeeper told us " every one
was engaged, even the gardener," the latter functionary

* ' Industrial Progress of New South Wales,' Sydney, 1871.
t ' New South Wales, Ihe oldest and richest of the Aubtraliau Colonies.'
By Charles Robinson. Sydney, 1873.

U

290 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

being occupied in " keeping order." The building seemed
deserted. We met no one, either in the corridors, on the
wide stone staircases, in the laboratory, or in the library.
The latter is a remarkably handsome apartment, and appa-
rently very well supplied with books. Among its contents,
we were informed, is a good collection of the Fathers.

Passing through it we entered a little balcony, high up
in one of the side walls of the great hall, whence we looked
down on rows of candidates busily engaged in writing their
examination papers, and certainly presenting no appear-
ance of requiring that great efforts should be made to keep
them in order.

Unluckily for us, the business in progress prevented our
going into the hall, and we were forced to content ourselves
with the view from the balcony, which hardly enabled us
to realise its fine proportions, though we could admire its
size and the simplicity of its style. It is as large we were
told as any college hall in Oxford or Cambridge, and the
third in size among university halls in the British Empire.
On the floor is a statue of Wentworth, the originator of the
University. The painted windows at the ends represent
founders of colleges in Oxford and Cambridge, while those
along the sides contain portraits of men celebrated in
science, literature, and art. In the vestibule is a fine
statue of Captain Cook; and some of the ground-floor
rooms contain a good though small collection of Egyptian
and Roman antiquities, and some also from Greece ; the
whole presented by Sir Charles Nicholson, formerly Speaker
of the Sydney House of Assembly.

Not far from the University is a newly-erected asylum
for deaf and dumb and blind children, to which we now-
directed our steps. It is chiefly supported by voluntary
contributions, being only assisted to a small extent by the
State. The house seems well adapted for its purpose, and
the dormitories were comfortable and clean. As all the
inmates excepting two or three were gone to a picnic at
Paramatta, we had no means of judging of the efficiency
of the teaching and general working of the institution.
Many were the lamentations, in which we heartily sym-

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 291

pathized, of the superintendent, who had remained at home,
that one of the marked holidays of their year, long looked
forward to, should be marred by the dust-storm.

We drove next to a large house, which had already been
pointed out to us as " an old, old building, built fifty years
ago!' It dates from Governor Macquarie's time, and
stands at the upper end of George Street, one of the main
arteries of Sydney, which, starting from the circular quay,
runs southward through the city. It is now used as a
Benevolent Asylum, constituting three departments of an
English workhouse, — a lying-in ward, a temporary asylum
for children, and an office for the distribution of out-door
relief. It is managed by a committee of more than thirty
gentlemen, elected by the subscribers, who, however, fur-
nish only a tenth of the funds, the remainder, amounting
to between four and five thousand pounds, being provided
by the State. The Public Charities Commission consider
this mode of government, which prevails in several of the
institutions they examined, open to serious objections, one
being that the State has no voice in the expenditure of the
money it contributes. In the case of the Benevolent
Asylum, the committee is too large for the transaction of
business. The Keport, while recommending that its num-
bers should be lessened, advises that it should be composed
of both ladies and gentlemen, part appointed by Govern-
ment and part by the subscribers ; the ladies to supervise
the institution as a maternity hospital, the gentlemen to
manage the out-door relief and financial affairs.*

We were taken over the institution by the matron, who
led us first through the women's wards, which, though
lacking the cheerful appearance of recently-built apart-
ments, were clean and comfortable. The ventilation, how-
ever, was not sufficient ; and the women themselves, many
of whom are of a very low class, were for the most part
slatternly in their appearance. Idleness is not permitte'I,
but the arrangements for their employment in the house-
work and washing for their department are kindly and

Report, Public Charities Commission.

u 2

292 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

judiciously made, so that the labour may not fall too
heavily upon them. The married women have a ward
to themselves, but these unhappily form but a small pro-
portion. Still the number of illegitimate births in the
colony has decreased of late years.

The asylum has been most successful as a lying-in
hospital. For some years (at the time of our visit) there
have been absolutely no deaths among the mothers, and
very few children born there have died ; but the death-
rate of foundlings brought in is not less than in other
similar institutions.

When the women are fit to depart employment is
obtained for them, generally without difficulty, and at
higher wages than the half-a-crown a week which the
rules of the institution compel them to accept. An infant,
instead of being au impediment to service, actually forms
an inducement to employers to engage the mother, as her
baby tends to keep her settled in her place — no small
recommendation in a country where the demand for female
servants falls so far short of the supply. The institution
is intended for the friendless and homeless, or for women
in extreme poverty ; but the rules of admission are not
well defined, and sometimes candidates obtain entrance
whose cases do not come strictly within these limits.

From the women's wards we went to those appro-
priated to the children, where the very young ones had
just been bathed (for which the accommodation is ample),
and the little creatures clustered round us and the
matron, of whom they seemed very fond, like so many
bees, looking very droll in their flannel shirts of extremely
scanty proportions. Although much cleaner than the
children in some of our workhouses they differed little
from them in other respects, and several were suffering
from sore eyes. These are often caused by dust-storms we
were told.

Nominally the foundlings and children whose parents
cannot maintain them remain here until they are four years
old, and are then sent to the different institutions estab-
lished for their reception, but in practice they not infie-

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 293

quently remain beyond that age ; and as the asylum is also
a depot for the reception of destitute children from all parts
of the colony until they can be drafted elsewhere, there
must always be some present of the school age. For
these there is a school, or rather two schools — one for
Catholics, the other for Protestants — each creed having
its own schoolroom and mistress, though there are not
a hundred scholars to divide between them. It is proof
how little the affairs of the asylum engage public atten-
tion, that the very existence of these two schools was un-
known beyond its walls until the visit of the Charity
Commission. They found them in an unsatisfactory state,
and strongly urge their abolition, deprecating at the same
time the retention of orphans in the asylum at all, and
recommend that at four years of age they shall either
be sent to the institutions established for their reception,
or, which they still more strongly advise, be boarded-
out.

Out-door relief, always given in the form of food, is
dispensed under the direction of the committee ; but im-
position is not infrequent among candidates, apparently
Irom want of efficient investigation of their circumstances.
For instance, relief is frequently granted to families where
the husband is in the hospital ; but as there is no com-
munication between this institution and the asylum, it
is not seldom continued after the man has recovered and
returned to his work. Out of two hundred and sixty-
nine cases inquired into, the Charity was found to have
been more or less abused in one hundred and fifty-two ;
while some glaring instances are quoted in the" Com-
missioners' Report, in which persons obtained relief who
had absolutely no claim to it. One was of a man
who earned 27. a week ; another of a man employed on
the wharves, while his wife kept two cows ; and a third, of
a woman who had 1007. in the savings-bank. Truly there
is employment for a Charity Organization Society in
Sydney.

The next day we spent a pleasant hour at the St.
Vincent's Hospital, a new and well-arranged building in an
open part of the town. It is supported entirely by volun-

294 WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRA LI A.

tary contributions, and managed by eight Sisters of Charity ;
but it is not limited to Catholics, receiving the sick of every
creed or country. Forty patients were present who
seemed excellently cared for. The wards are large and
airy, and open on to broad verandahs — a common feature
in Australian hospitals — in which the convalescent patients
can enjoy the air, protected from the heat of the sun.

Besides the wards for gratuitous patients, there are also
private rooms for those who are able to pay — a provision
most useful in a colony where there are many persons
possessing neither home or friends, and who are yet far
above the necessity of accepting charity. The nursing is
performed by the Sisters, whose benevolent countenances
and genial manner must render them extremely pleasant
attendants. A cook and a laundress, a wardsman and
wardswoman, and two young girls to wait on the private
patients, form the staff of paid assistants, the dispensing
even being done by a member of the sisterhood.

In the afternoon we made acquaintance with the far-
famed Botanic Gardens. These we entered from the " 0 uter
Domain," or principal park of Sydney, which, covering 138
acres, and surrounding the inlet of the harbour called
" Farm Cove," is beautifully planted with trees, in groups
or avenues. For a long distance we walked through
one of the latter consisting of the Moreton Bay fig, a
favourite tree in Sydney. A variety of the banyan, it
sends out bunches of roots from the branches, sometimes
sufficiently low down to strike into the ground. The
shrub we often see adorning English drawing-rooms —
the India-rubber tree (Ficus elastica) — belongs to the
same family, and if we imagine that grown to the size
of a forestrtree, we shall obtain a correct idea of the More-
ton Bay fig. In the Botanic Gardens there is a real
banyan, small as yet, but sufficiently grown for one of
its branches to have turned down and struck into the
ground.

The Ficus macrophylla, or Port Jackson fig, is, as its latter
name imports, a native of Sydney Harbour. Its leaf is
smaller than that of the Moretou Bay variety. We took

WHAT WE SAW JN AUSTRALIA. 295

shelter from rain under one in shape like an oak, and the
size of a forest-tree.

At the entrance to the Gardens we fortunately met
Mr. Moore, the curator, and a gentleman of our party
being known to him, he was so good as to join us, and
point out all that was interesting in this beautiful place.

The older part, planted fifty years ago by Governor
Macquarie, is laid out in straight walks, enclosing square
blocks of thick shrubbery. In an open space in the centre
stands a magnificent Norfolk Island pine, the glory of the
Gardens, rearing its stately head more than 100 feet high,
straight as the mainmast of a man-of-war. So far have its
branches extended, that it has been found necessary even
to " cut back " the tree to prevent it from spreading
beyond the space allotted to it ; and this continued cut-
ting has rendered it the thickest and most luxuriant,
though it is not the tallest, of all the pines in the Garden.
From this noble tree Mr. Moore led us through the
walks, every moment calling our attention to some tree or
plant new to us. Here were tea and coffee-trees growing
in the open air, and palms of various kinds — some in-
digenous, others exotic : the cocoa, with its crown of
feathery foliage, from the centre of which hangs its bunch
of fruit ; the cabbage-tree, tall and straight in trunk, with
its cluster of leaves at top; and the lawyer palm, sp
called because its long waving shoots entangle the unlucky
traveller if he endeavours to penetrate their meshes. The
traveller's-tree we also saw, deriving its name from the
property it possesses of holding water, when not a drop
can be obtained from the parched soil in which it grows.
It is flat and fan-shaped, with long leaves growing closely
one above the other up the stem. Here, too, is the bottle
tree, deriving its name from the smooth trunk, in form
something like an ill-shaped bottle, with slender branches
shooting from the top ; the mango, resembling the peach,
but with a larger leaf; the gigantic Ethiopian banana,
valueless for fruit, but with a stem sometimes growing to
the thickness of four feet ; and loveliest of all when in
flower, the Jacaranda, or Brazilian rosewood, a tall tree,

296 WHAT WE SAW JN AUSTRALIA.

covered with large spikes of lilac blossom. These, coming
out before the leaves, produce a mass of soft rich colour,
which we saw to great advantage against the dark -green
background of a Norfolk Island pine.

The newer division of the Gardens, in part reclaimed
from the harbour, is still in course of planting, under the
direction of Mr. Moore, where paths wind among lawns of
dark-green buffalo grass sloping to the water's edge.
Here stands a group of the graceful bamboo, the tall and
slender stems making a peculiar, but not tinpleasant,
sound as they touched each other, waving to and fro in
the wind. Plants for the study of botany are grown in
the new division, and near them has been erected a large
arbour for the accommodation of the students, but more
used, said Mr. Moore, as a place for eating than for
learning, being a favourite haunt of picnickers.

There are one or two hothouses, but the flowers, both
in variety and beauty, are inferior to those at Adelaide.
The special charm of these Gardens lies in the loveliness
of their position, turned admirably to account in laying
them out, and in their wealth of rare and beautiful trees.

They also contain a small collection of beasts and
birds. Among them are several monkeys, who sleep in
kennels, and are chained, poor unhappy creatures, round
their middles to posts three or four feet high — a melan-
choly fate it seemed to us for animals who, in their natural
state, delight in climbing and swinging from bough to
bough among the topmost branches of tall forest-trees.
One of these is fond of amusing itself by throwing stones
at visitors, and has attained to considerable success in
" hitting his man." Mr. Moore, as we stopped to look
at them, was in the act of explaining this propensity, when
a stone discharged by the monkey fell in the midst of
our party. Fortunately for us this time the animal so far
missed his aim, that no one of us was struck, but we had
a very narrow escape.

Some animals which we did not find in the Gardens, we
saw when visiting Mr. Parkes, who possesses several that
were new to us. Among them is a little marsupial of the

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 297

opossum kind, as small as a dormouse, and so tame as to
be carried in the hand ; and a wombat, standing, perhaps,
two feet from the ground, with a head like that of a young
calf, and beautifully bright eyes. It possesses an exqui-
sitely soft coat, as soft as the fur of the seal, but much
longer. There is, too, a mongoose. This creature will kill
any snake, however deadly, being a match for even the
cobra, and is kept in India for that purpose, as we keep
cats to kill mice.

The mongoose has a brown coat, slightly streaked with
grey, and the hair is so long and stiff as somewhat to
resemble a porcupine's quills. It is apparently of the
ferret tribe, very snake-like in its motions, and with an
expression in its red-brown eyes and sharp little face
which made us feel more at ease when it had been restored
to its cage, though we believe there was no real cause for
alarm. Mr. Parkes had brought it into his library in his
arms, and there set it to run on the floor. It seemed
afraid of the company, and scampered round and round
the room, apparently seeking a refuge under tables, chairs,
the sofa, or our skirts !

The private grounds of Government House are con-
tiguous to the Botanic Gardens. The house itself is
beautifully situated on the south side of the harbour, com-
manding lovely views. That from Lady Robinson's
boudoir, which, being on the first floor, looks over the
garden brilliant with flowers to the islands and bays and
promontories beyond, is worth a journey to behold.

A ^serious drawback to this otherwise delightful resi-
dence is the neighbourhood of a large sewer which, by
some extraordinary arrangement, empties itself into the
harbour just below Government House. The drainage of
Sydney is sadly defective; but we are not aware that
there are any towns in Australia in which this is not the
case.

No steps have as yet been taken by the Government of
New South Wales for the promotion of art, but a little
society calling itself the School of Art has been established
with this object in Sydney, by private individuals. This

298 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

evening we attended one of its soirees. A pretty collec-
tion of water-colours, landscapes, and photographs, chiefly
of English scenery, had been lent for the occasion. The
society, which aims at rousing public interest in the cul-
tivation of art, and hopes to obtain for it Government aid,
deserves success ; and if fine scenery has any influence in
producing artists, there should be no lack of landscape-
painters at least among the inhabitants of Sydney.

The Sydney Free Library cannot yet boast a habi-
tation equal to that at Melbourne, but a new building is
in course of erection near Hyde Park — a large open space
forty acres in extent, planted with trees, on one of the
heights of the city. This building is eventually to con-
tain the museum and library ; though, as funds are granted
but slowly, only a small portion is yet finished.

In 1862 a grant of 25,000/. was voted by Parliament to
found a free library, and a site for it was purchased ; but
being found ill adapted to its purpose it was sold, and
nothing further was done. In that year the " Australian
Library and Literary Institution " offered its collection of
books to the Government. This was a private society, of
the nature of a club, founded many years before, when the
population was divided almost distinctly into the govern-
ing class and convicts, and admission to the club had been
a coveted privilege difficult of attainment. But in course
of years, as the distinction became less and less clearly
defined, the society languished ; and though efforts were
made to increase the number of members but few new
ones joined it. Debts accumulated, and in 1869 it was
glad to sell its collection, numbering 16,000 volumes, to
the State. The Government also rented, and subse-
quently purchased, the society's house, in which the
library is still located. Ten trustees conduct its affairs,
and under their direction considerable additions are con-
stantly being made to the number of books, which had
reached at the end of 1871 more than 20,000. Some dupli-
cates have been sent to the Melbourne Free Library,
in exchange for photographs of considerable value taken
from the pictures in the Museum of Art in that city ; but

WHAT WE SAW IN A VSTRALIA. 29<

S) £££ CESS and a steady average has
been maintained. , November), when

p™g one or mo» contoguous s s o^
lillmg a recess and ^rmmg ^ in each>

A catalogue of the W B « i. be

clearly drawn »^freS8Ce *e mitted to take books
found at once, ^"^-.fiit them back again. This

trstees on the edn-tjon. use^ g ^

assistants count the numBe uu „ . t into

and if any be found m'^f i^^the shelf stating

the vacant space, and a notice i TO

that such a book was ™sSed on ™<* a day.

not ^^'^Thebur' Kilter, however",

*e actual loss not

. Report of the gjdwy Free Public Library, 1870-71.

300 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

ously observed) all persons who are so far cleanly dressed
and well-behaved as not to annoy their neighbours, are
admitted. Ex-prisoners from the gaol have been seen
among the readers.

An almost separate and very convenient room is re-
served for women, though it is optional to them to sit
there. None were present to-day. The library, we
learnt, is much frequented on Saturdays by teachers,
who come to prepare the lessons they will give in the
ensuing week, availing themselves of the books of refer-
ence, which are numerous.

Of others who avail themselves of the library, a con-
siderable number are men out of work. The room will
accommodate sixty comfortably, but as many as a hun-
dred have been present at the same time. It is open from
9 A.M. to 10 P.M., except on public holidays. Even on
these occasions it was formerly kept open, but very few
readers attended, and for so small a number it was not
considered worth while to deprive the librarian and the
assistants of their holiday. Excellent so far as it goes,
the library is still inadequate to the requirements of a
city like Sydney, and we shall be glad to hear of its trans-
ference to the building now in course of erection.

There are two drives which it is de rigueur that all
visitors to Sydney should take ; one by the South Head
B-oad to the Lighthouse, the other along the North
Shore to Middle Head — the eastern point of the inner
shore of the harbour, and exactly opposite its entrance.

We went first towards the South Head, along a well-
made road M-hich, after traversing a beautiful suburb of
Sydney, leads sometimes through woods, at others across
the scrub. Pretty villas, with lodges and carriage-drives,
are frequent along the road. Every now and then we
had lovely peeps of the bays which indent the southern
shore of the harbour, and which are wide and circular in
shape ; while those on the western and northern side are
pointed and narrow — rather inlets than bays.

The weather was cloudy, and mist often obscured or
partially concealed the distant views ; we missed the

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 301

usual brilliancy of the atmosphere, but the passing
showers lent a beauty of their own.

We were not able to extend our drive — already, how-
ever, including the chief beauties of the excursion — farther
than the Macquarie Lighthouse, between four and five
miles from Sydney, though the road is carried on some
distance beyond to Watson's Bay, the last inlet before
reaching the South Head.

The next day was lovely, — balmy, without being hot, —
and we had a delightful expedition to Middle Head.
Crossing the harbour to St. Leonards, we drove thence
along the high groimd overlooking its northern shores.
In our friend Mr. Windeyer we had the cicerone who
conducted Mr. Trollope to the fortifications over which
he makes merry, although he admits he could almost
wish to be a gunner, so lovely is the site of the batteries —
an opinion in which we he'artily sympathize. On the
rocks on which the highest fort is constructed are some
sketches on stone by the aborigines ; their date is un-
known. The number has been larger, but some fell a
sacrifice in making the fortifications ; care, however, has
been taken to preserve the rest. They consist of outlines,
cut on the horizontal rock, of fishes and kangaroos, the
latter being very fragmentary. One fish is, perhaps,
twelve feet long; but those most correctly drawn do not
exceed a foot or eighteen inches in length. The draw-
ings sometimes overlap each other, like the designs in the
pattern-sheet of a fashion-book.

Mr. Windeyer told us that in caves in different parts of
the colony representations of a large red hand have been
found, attributed to the natives, and supposed to indicate
possession of the place by a chief. Until recently, one
existed in a cave in the harbour ; but it has been allowed,
through want of care, to be broken away.

But few aborigines are met with in Sydney or its
neighbourhood. During our whole stay we saw only two
in the city ; one a drunken woman in the street, the other
a poor imbecile in the Keceiving-house for lunatics. The
number throughout the colony who could be counted in

302 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

the census of 1871 fell short of a thousand. With regard
to the numbers remaining in districts not yet settled,
some persons told us there were very few, while others
spoke of "thousands" dwelling in the distant bush.
There are missions in New South Wales for civilising
the aborigines, and there is an officer entitled " Surgeon
to the Aborigines ; " but in what his functions consist we
are ignorant.

We must have seen the harbour at its best to-day ; it
reminded us of all the lovely lake or coast views (except
those distinctly mountainous) we had ever beheld. The
Cornice Road ; Killarney ; the Cove of Cork ; the east
coast of Ireland ; that of North Devon ; Queensferry, near
Edinburgh ; Loch Long, were each in turn called to our
memory at different points of our drive. Beautiful wild
flowers in great variety abound in spring. Now their
season is nearly passed ; but still we found the lovely
marguerite, a velvety white flower, with gray silky leaves
and long slender stalk, not unlike the moon daisy.

The friends whom we accompanied to-day constantly
apologised for their demands on our powers of admiration,
excusing themselves, when pointing out one view after
another, by remarking that Sydney had nothing but her
harbour worthy of notice (to which we certainly could not
agree), and turning the laugh against themselves by
relating a story current at the time, which, if not true,
is at least "ben trovato. Sydney people are supposed, they
told us, never to cease lauding their harbour, and de-
manding praise of it from every foreigner in season and
out of season. A party of naval offieers — so the story
runs — being at Sydney, made an excursion along the
shore, taking a tent with them, retiring beneath its
shelter. Overcome with fatigue, for a siesta, they placed
upon it, outside, this notice : " Yes, we like your harbour
very much, but we are asleep ; do not disturb us."

Monday, 10th November. Yesterday, the 9th, being
Sunday, the Prince of Wales's birthday is kept to-day.
Shops, counting-houses, banks, are all closed, and every-
one gives him and herself up to enjoyment. We, though

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 303

strangers, were not forgotten in the universal festivities.
Some very kind friends resident in Sydney, whose acquaint-
ance we had made on our voyage from England, invited
us to join a party of guests they were taking to a picnic
in one of the many lovely nooks of the harbour. The
weather was perfect, bright, and genial, but without ex-
cessive heat. As we made our way to the quay, the
streets were alive with people of every rank, and all well
dressed. The ships and houses near the water were gay
with bunting, and the harbour was crowded with steamers
and little boats. A comfortable steam-launch conveyed
us towards the Heads.

Holiday-makers were so numerous, even at this distance
of several miles from Sydney, that we coasted about for a
time before an unoccupied spot could be found. At
length we landed at Balmoral, a lovely combination of
sward and bush, with a tiny beach of white sand, in a
little cove in Middle -Harbour. The water was green, or
blue, or purple, according to the lights and distance ; and
all was bathed in an atmosphere bright and pure, yet not
dazzling.

Among our party were some French naval officers,
whose ship, as we passed her, courteously dipped her
colours. They spoke of the lie de Campbell, four or five
hundred miles south of New Zealand, whither they were
bound, to prepare for the arrival of the savants whom
the French Government had arranged should there ob-
serve the transit of Venus. K , uncertain whether it

belonged to France or England, asked the French consul,
who was among the guests. "All is yours, Madame,"
was his response.

While our hostess was intent in superintending pre-
parations for our comfort, we strolled into the woods.
One of the French guests, with characteristic gallantry,
proposed that we should gather a bouquet for her ; and
though the season for wild flowers was almost past, we
succeeded in collecting one. In our search for the flowers,
we strayed far out of sight; and when luncheon was
ready, were summoned to return, Australian-fashion, by a

304 WHAT WE SAW IN A US THALIA.

" coo-ee" a harmonious call, when, as in this instance, it
was given by the musical voice of a young lady.

Before re-embarking there was time for a walk along
the smooth white beach, where, in a few minutes, our
companions helping, we gathered a large variety of lovely
shells.

We reached Sydney between five and six in the evening,
when crowds of the holiday-makers were already returning
from their trips about the harbour ; but no ill-behaviour,
or even roughness, was to be seen. Next morning there
were but eight cases of drunkenness before the Police
Court.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 305

CHAPTER XVII.

Sydney "City Arabs" — Society for the Relief of Neglected and Desti-
tute Children — Asylum — Eandwick — Visit to Paramatta — Gaol
— Catholic Orphanage — Lunatic Asylum — Tile manufactory —
Orangeries.

SEVERAL years ago, the class who correspond with our
street Arabs had become so numerous in Sydney that some
of her citizens, desirous of rescuing these poor creatures
from their wretched condition, founded, in 1852, the
" Society for the Eelief of Neglected and Destitute Chil-
dren," and in the same year opened an asylum in the
South Head Eoad for their reception.

In 1857 the Society was incorporated by an Act of the
Colonial Parliament, and thereby endowed with the legal
guardianship of the children ; the powers thus created
being very similar to those possessed by the managers of
Certified Industrial Schools at home.

Soon after its foundation the Society received the mu-
nificent legacy of 11,500?. from its first medical officer,
Dr. Cuthill. The Government, too, has contributed libe-
rally to its funds ; for, besides bestowing grants both
of land and money, it has so largely subsidized the
asylum that the average amount received from the State
for the last six years has annually exceeded SOOOZ. A
portion, though but a small one, of the income of the
institution is derived from the contributions of some of
the parents of the children it receives.

A few years after the asylum was opened the Society
erected a large and handsome building capable of receiving
a thousand children, at Rand wick, a few miles out of
Sydney, on high ground between the southern side of the
harbour and the open sea, and thither the institution has

x

308 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

been removed. It is governed by a board of directors,
some elected by the subscribers, others sitting in virtue of
a donation of 100Z. Though Government contributes the
chief portion of the funds it is not represented on the
board ; nor does it even inspect the asylum, though it
sends to it a large number of its inmates.

Originally formed for the rescue of the neglected and
destitute, the Society has in the course of years departed
from the intentions of its founders, by sometimes admitting
to Eandwick children whose parents are able and fit to bring
up their offspring. The members of the Koyal Commission
state in their report that, in consequence of this departure
they " are not surprised to find that the charity of the
public has been from time to time grossly abused," and we
find one of the original members of the Society stating
"that his reason for withdrawing from it was that the
original objects of the institution were not carried out, and
that he found himself powerless to prevent the reception
of children who ought not to be there." *

The directors have lately inquired more carefully into
the circumstances of candidates for admission, which may
partly account for the present reduction in the number of
children. Only the healthy are admitted from any source ;
thus the sickly ones in the Benevolent Asylum are left in
the city, where, as compared with Eandwick, they have
but little chance of improving in health ; and this notwith-
standing that the directors have built a hospital in their
own grounds, at a cost of 3000?. It is called the Catherine
Hayes Hospital, in gratitude to this lady, who contributed
a large sum towards its erection.

On November llth we visited the institution. The
children, of whom there are between seven and eight
hundred, are employed, much as those in our large pauper
schools at home would be. They did not impress us
favourably, either with regard to neatness of appear-
ance or intelligence of countenance ; but perhaps this
may be owing to their cropped hair and unbecoming dress.

Public Charities Commission Report, p. 117.

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA. 307

Dullness of expression, however, is not uncommon among-
children massed together as they are at Band wick, where
the number is so large that, as we learn from the Com-
missioners Keport, neither superintendent or matron know
even the names of many of their youthful charges !

ihe staff of teachers is small in comparison with the
pupils Two hundred and thirty-nine girls are entirely
instructed by three mistresses, exclusive of some assistance
m teaching needlework.

The children are taught in very large classes. We saw
one, of little boys, nearly a hundred in number, receiving
a lesson m arithmetic, and as we watched them we doubted
f the extremely difficult task were achieved of keeping
up the interest of all. To us it seemed that the quicke?
witted ones might answer the questions before those of
slower comprehension had understood their import A
class ot elder boys, whom the teacher examined, answered
pretty readily some questions on the geography of New
bouth Wales, which, it is fair to add, we could not ourselves
have solved.

A large dining-hall in which all the meals are taken is
furnished with a carving table heated by steam This the
managers say has proved a great boon to the children in
providing them with « a hot instead of a cold repast "*

The dormitories, though very large, were still crowded
with the beds placed not only in rows round their walls
but also down the middle of the rooms. The kitchen is
totted up with a steam cooking-apparatus. What was our
astonishment on entering to behold there two male officers
one of them being the cook ! No girls, it was explained,'
can be employed m this department, because it is improper
tor them to be under the tuition of a man. But we doubt
it they would acquire much useful knowledge were thev
employed in the kitchen, the steam apparatus being
totally unlike the accommodation for cooking they will be
likely to meet with beyond the walls of the asylum. It

ReliefoTtg^ *» the

308 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

has been introduced with a view to economise labour, but
it is worse than valueless as regards the object of the
charity, which is to fit the children for their after-career
in life.

We learn from the report of the Society that, up to the
end of 1872, of two thousand four hundred and sixty-six
children received at R/andwick, one hundred and sixty
have died there. More than half who have passed through
the asylum have been restored to their parents; the
remainder have been apprenticed for terms of six years.
Their employers undertake to lodge, feed, and clothe
them, and to provide medical attendance. They also pay
wages, beginning at sixpence per week in the first year of
their apprenticeship, and increasing to four and sixpence in
the last. Two-thirds of the money is paid into the savings'
bank belonging to the institution, and given to the young
people at the termination of their apprenticeship; the
remainder they receive meanwhile for pocket-money. How
rejoiced would Managers in England be, could they impose
terms so favourable in behalf of young people brought up
in our pauper or industrial schools !

The superintendent showed us several letters from
former pupils, speaking in affectionate terms of the insti-
tution. Efforts are made to keep up a correspondence
with the girls when apprenticed — but no efficient super-
vision is exercised over either girls or boys after they have
quitted Kandwick, an omission fatal as regards testing with
any approach to success the results of the training.

From our own observation we are inclined to believe
the children are as well brought up as is practicable with
such large numbers where no attempt is made to break
them into groups. But no system can counteract the
evils inseparable from an institution where, as at Rand wick,
several hundreds are massed together.

November 12th. We went by railway to Paramatta,
fourteen miles from Sydney. The journey thither by
steamer up the lovely Paramatta river is a favourite
excursion, and we should have been glad to combine it
with our present object, which was to visit various institu-

WHA T WE SAW IN A USTEAL1A. 309

tions ; but the starting-hour of the steamer and the
greater time occupied in the voyage were not compatible
with our plan for the day. The Master in Equity, Mr.
Holroyd, was our kind escort in this expedition. With him
we first repaired to the prison, and were, we were told, the
first ladies ever admitted within its walls.

This ^ gaol receives male prisoners only — " labour-pri-
soners " undergoing the second stage of penal servitude,
and a few local "confines." The number present to-
day was 169, of whom the following tables were given
to us : —

H.M. GAOL PARAMATTA.
Convictions.

First Conviction ,t 37

Second „ '„ " 34

Third „ .. .. 18

Fourth „ (and upwards) 30

Total .. ..169

Sentences of Prisoners confined in above Gaol on this date.

Not exceeding 12 months 8

Exceeding 12 months and not exceeding 5 years '.. 17

5 years „ „ 7 „ .. 62

» ~ » », „ 10 „ .. 26

10 » » „ 15 „ .. 23

T., » 15 » 17

Life 16

Total .. ..169

The men had a very unpleasant aspect, no doubt partly
attributable to the ugly prison-dress.

Exquisite cleanliness prevails throughout the building,
and its arrangements include excellent baths, though the
water supply is bad. The baths are used once a week,
though this is, we believe, optional. Typhoid fever has
been severe in the gaol, but now the health is generally
good. We saw only one prisoner in bed, an old man of
eighty-three. The bearing of the officers towards the

310 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

prisoners reminded us unpleasantly here, as it had done
to some extent at Darlinghurst, of their manner in some
gaols at home, suggesting painful comparison with what
we had observed in South Australia.

The prisoners sleep in cells, sometimes alone, sometimes
three in a cell, and are locked up soon after 5 P.M., the
windows being set so high in the walls that daylight must
disappear much earlier than in an ordinary room. The
men are liberally fed, and a curious relic of the old regime
remains in the periodical nomination of a prisoner by his
fellows as their " delegate " to examine the portions of
food supplied, and ascertain -that they are correct both in
quantity and quality ; but the Governor told us that
the office is now practically a sinecure, the officers of
the prison being responsible that the food is such as the
prison rules direct.

A tall, broad-shouldered man was pointed out to us
as the present delegate ; and asking if we might ques-
tion him about the duties of his office, he was called
forward. On this nearer view, his countenance struck us
as one of the hardest and most unsympathetic we had
ever seen. Observing that he wore leg-irons (indicating
that he was under sentence for life), we asked, when we
had moved away, what his offence had been. After a few
moments' pause to identify the number by which he was
habitually known with his name, we were told that he
was Armstrong, the captain of the 'Karl'! Had we
been aware in time we certainly should not have spoken
with him.

A. variety of employments are carried on in the gaol, —
stone-cutting, blacksmith's work, tailoring, shoemaking,
and bookbinding, all done by time, not by the piece.
The prisoners did not give us the impression of working
hard, but we saw them to some disadvantage in this
respect, as before we entered a shop an officer preceded
us and stopped the work, probably that the prisoners
might rise on our entrance. After a short interval they
were allowed to resume their occupations.

The school-room, which is also used for Protestant and

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRAL1A. 311

Roman Catholic worship, is a large and pleasant apartment.
Instruction is afforded only to the ignorant, and with
these it is optional to receive it, so that but a small
proportion of the prisoners attend. Among the pupils
were some young men of superior appearance under
punishment for cattle-stealing — a common offence. It is
sometimes difficult on the runs to identify the animals,
and perhaps intentional carelessness may also lead to their
being appropriated by the wrong owner. Then reprisals
are made ; and when the property lost is valuable, or per-
sonal feeling aggravates the injury, a formal charge of
cattle-stealing is the result.

From the gaol we drove to the Catholic Orphanage, an
institution founded in 1836. It is supported entirely by
the State, and is under the control of the Government,
who have entrusted it to the management of Sisters
of the Order of the Good Shepherd.

We arrived just as the girls were coming out from
morning school, and the boys — who went through their
evolutions very well we thought — were being drilled in
the playground. The school has its drum and fife band,
which performed some spirited airs for our entertainment.

Sister Mary Gertrude, a lively Irish lady, the super-
intendent of the girls' school, evidently fulfils her duties
con amore. As she led us through the house she paused
in her school-room to show us the copy-books, which
proved her pupils had made good progress in the art of
writing, and we heartily regretted that we could not stay
until the various classes had reassembled for her instruc-
tion. The building is ill-adapted to its purpose, but yet
appeared cheerful, and was exquisitely clean.

In passing through the dormitories we found that some
of the windows looted into the grounds of the adjacent
lunatic asylum. These are divided for the recreation of
the two sexes, not however into two gardens, but into
one beautiful garden, and one ugly yard devoid of trees
and even of seats. The male patients we beheld enjoying
the garden, the yard being appropriated to the women !

312 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

The inmates of the orphanage, numbering nearly three
hundred boys and girls varying from two to twelve years
of age, looked bright, cheerful, and free from restraint.
They are apprenticed in the same manner as at the other
institutions we have visited, and are reported to turn out
well. There are no special arrangements for their super-
vision, but the organisation of the Koman Catholic Church
in some measure supplies this deficiency. A committee of
gentlemen manages the apprenticing, and gives notice to
the priest of the district to which any children are sent.
It then becomes his business to visit the young appren-
tices, and exercise over them a friendly supervision.

The Mother Superior, who appeared to us to have the
well-being of the children at heart, recognises an indi-
vidual knowledge of them as essential to success in their
training, and believes that in a school limited to 300
such knowledge may be attained. But though we cannot
agree in her opinion as regards such institutions generally,
we incline to think it correct in respect to her own, so
favourably did the orphanage impress us.

On quitting the school we accompanied Mr. Holroyd to
his house. Our way lay through Paramatta, a home-like
looking place, possessing an old-fashioned red brick inn,
the ' Woolpack,' just such as may be seen in quiet country
towns in England. Formerly it boasted a residence for
the Governor, and traces remain of its past importance.

After dinner we walked through our host's beautiful
gardens. Flower-beds containing a wonderful variety of
plants from every part of the world (except those in the
extremes of cold and heat) border a lawn so extensive as
to include two bowling-greens. Shrubs and trees in-
digenous to the mountainous districts of India, and many
from the Cape of Good Hope and South America, grow
here in much luxuriance ;, while the range of fruit and
vegetables in the kitchen -garden equals that of the
ornamental plants.

Beyond the gardens are meadows ; and on rising ground
beyond the meadows, some half-mile distant, is an orangery ;

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 313

and all around, contrasting forcibly with this high culti-
vation, is the bush, which here means a close growth of
slender gum-trees much resembling Scotch firs in aspect,
and with little underwood.

On our way to the station Mr. Holroyd showed us the
works he has established on his estate for the manufacture
of tiles and drain-pipes, the buildings standing in the midst
of the primeval forest. Discovering on his property a vast
supply of suitable clay, he had been induced, he told us,
to undertake this industry by the exorbitant price de-
manded for drain-pipes. He finds he can make them
himself for a much smaller sum than he used to pay for
them, and now he also sells large quantities. Besides
tiles and drain-pipes, he hopes to be able to manufacture
telegraph insulators, which at present are imported from
Germany at a cost of eighteenpence a-piece.

The traveller who visits Paramatta without entering an
orangery must reckon on being considered to fail in the
' object of his journey ; we therefore must confess to having
failed, for time did not permit us to go into any of them.
But though we did not see the orangeries, we often ate their
fruit, and can testify to its excellence. It possesses also
the great merit of being almost perennial. " The orange-
trees in New South Wales commence bearing ripe fruit
about the month of June ; they are at that time of an acid
flavour, but are sweeter in July, and from September to
January they are in perfection. The season seldom ter-
minates until February, and even as late as the 13th of
March oranges are occasionally exposed for sale. We
find in New South Wales that if the fruit is allowed to
remain upon the trees, and only plucked as required, they
last all the year round, or, at all events, until the next
crop begins to ripen. The late blossoms form a second
crop, which, ripening later in the season, keep up a supply
for the table ; but oranges left too long upon the tree
in any quantity are liable to injure the fruit of the next
season. Oranges of the second crop are small, with the
pulp peculiarly crisp and sweet, containing (if any) very

314 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

small, abortive seeds ; sometimes the rind remains green,
or of a pale greenish-yellow colour. Although it has
been considered that these and other fruit-trees have no
season of rest in Australia, yet, when there have been
two productive seasons, the third (which I regard as the
season of rest) will generally be a failure." *

: The Industrial Progress of New South Wales,' pp. 683-4.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 315

CHAPTEE XVIII.

Camden Park — Destruction caused by Floods — Blue Mountains — Mount
Victoria — The Warratah — Govat's Leap.

WE were engaged to go on the 13th of November to
Camden Park, one of the oldest country seats in New South
Wales, the property of the descendants of Mr. John Mac-
arthur, who, by the introduction of Merino sheep into the
colony, conferred, in this source of great wealth, a most
important boon upon his adopted country.

We quitted Sydney in the afternoon by the same route
we had traversed the day before, as far as Paramatta ;
then turning to the south-west we reached Menangle,
forty miles from town. Our road lay through an early-
settled district, reminding us of parts of Berkshire where
the land is gently undulating and hedges are rare.
Evening was already closing in when the train stopped
at Menaugle, whence Camden Park is five miles distant;
and it was too dark when we reached our destination
to distinguish more than that the carriage-drive to the
house led between lawns and flower-beds. The view we
beheld next morning — of soft velvety turf, a luxuriance
of flowers and thick shrubberies in the foreground, and
beyond, the undulating wooded landscape with the spire of
a village church seen through the foliage — made it almost
impossible to believe that we were out of England, except
that we saw many trees and plants which will not grow in
the open air with us. The beautiful jasmenoides, purple and
white, climbed the pillars of the verandah. On the lawn
grew the silver oa,k(GreviUia robusta), a tree with feathery
light-green foliage silver on the under side, and bearing
a thick spike of orange-coloured blossom. There were

316 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

also many kinds of pines, including that from Norfolk
Island, and from Moreton Bay with foliage very similar,
though less stiff, and the beautiful buriya-bunya (Arau-
caria Bidwittii], its shining leaves of dark green growing
thickly up the branches. This tree is native to a dis-
trict of New South Wales, but it grows well in the other
colonies. There is a fine specimen at Hazelwood, but
nowhere had we seen one to compare with that on the
lawn at Cam den Park.

The fruit of the bunya bunya is a cone containing small
kernels, ot which the aborigines are extremely fond. The
tribe or tribes who dwell in the district where the tree is
indigenous permit the members of others, less fortunate,
to come when the fruit is ripe and gather it for them-
selves, on condition that they will eat nothing else and
refrain from hunting any animals during their sojourn —
a condition enjoined, probably, lest these should be so
much reduced as to cause a famine. We heard that the
strange tribes admitted to the privilege of eating the
kernels of the bunya bunya, and having no other food,
will nearly starve before they can tear themselves away
from their beloved fruit.

Among the foreign trees is the funereal cypress, of the
kind the Chinese are accustomed to plant on their graves,
and a rude representation of which may be seen on a willow-
pattern plate. The long, pointed, needle-like leaves are
almost black in hue, and grow in tufts from the slender
and somewhat straggling branches.

In the centre ot one of the gardens stands a beautiful
magnolia growing to a great height: near it are four
magnificent mulberry-trees. Not far off, among- a planta-
tion of camellias, we saw vigorous specimens of the
veritable tea-tree ; both shrubs being members of the
same family. The climate is so well adapted to the tea-
tree, that it might be grown for commerce, but that it
requires so much trouble in its cultivation that, at the
high price of labour in New South Wales, it could not be
rendered profitable.

Fine European trees grow in the paddocks — oaks, stone-

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 317

pines, and a vigorous young plane-tree raised from seed
which, after many disappointments, Sir William Macarthur
obtained from Europe. This is almost the only specimen
of the plane we have met with in Australia, which is sur-
prising, as one would suppose the tree must be well suited
to the climate, and its thick foliage would certainly afford
grateful shade.

We accompanied our hostess in a visit to the pretty
school-house, built for the children of the workpeople oil
the estate. They are obliged to attend school, though
it is optional with their parents to send them to this
or to any of the three or four others available in the
neighbourhood.

On tlie loth —a brilliant morning — our friends took us
to the top of a conical hill, called " Camden Sugar-loaf," a
corresponding elevation on the opposite side of a broad
valley bearing the name of " Campbell Town Sugar-loaf."
In our way we went into a recently-planted orangery,
where strawberries were growing under the orange-trees,
the fruit of both being ripe.

Camden Sugar-loaf is the highest spot in the neighbour-
hood, and gave us a completely panoramic and most lovely
view. Immediately around us, on very undulating ground,
lay wood and pasture. The orangery sloped downwards
rapidly on one side ; on another were the Camden Park
gardens, the house just discernible among the lofty trees,
of which the Grevillia robusta, with its crown of orange-
coloured blossom, rose the highest. Farther away were
wooded hills and green plains. The Razor-back Range,
along the ridge of which is the high road leading to the
Victorian boundary, and eventually to Melbourne, closed
the view in one direction, while in the extreme west
the Blue Mountains rose in sight. Heavy clouds were
coming up from that side, while above us the sun was
shining in the bright blue sky. A shower had recently
swept across the country, and was now breaking among
the hills to the south-east. Presently thunder was heard
in the distance, and its steady approach sent us to the
gardener's cottage for shelter. Here was a porch covered

318 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

with the edible passion-flower, the thick foliage making
a pleasant shade from the sun, while its beautiful oval
fruit, green at this season, hung in profusion round the
trellis.

Taking advantage of a slight lull in the storm \ve
hastened homewards ; but peals of thunder again crashed
around us, and we only reached the house just in time to
escape the torrents of rain which continued falling for some
hours.

In the afternoon the weather cleared, and we drove to the
scene of the great flood which took place in February past.
Floods more or less serious have occurred during the past
ten years, but this one exceeded in severity all that had
gone before. The river Nepeau, called in this district
the Cow-pasture (further north it takes the name of the
Hawkesbury, and is there celebrated for the beauty of
its scenery), after twenty-four hours' incessant rain, rose so
high as to flood the country round, and bringing down
vast masses of timber in its course spread them with large
quantities of sand over several thousand acres of more or
less cultivated land. The vineyard at Camden Park was
entirely overwhelmed, as were the adjacent orchards and
meadows. At the time of the disaster the grapes were
just ripe — the whole crop was destroyed ! Hundreds of
tons of wood have been burnt to get rid of it, yet piles
like wood-stacks remain. Half the vineyard has at great
labour and expense been cleared ; but the remaining
portion nearer to the river has been abandoned as too
costly to reclaim with the prospect of probable future
destruction from the same cause. Happily the loss of only
one life resulted in this district from the flood, which
extended for many miles along the course of the river, but
the ruin to property was vast.

It is said that these floods are more frequent than they
used to be in the early days of the colony ; one explanation
being that the continual treading of the land by the cattle
pastured upon it renders it so hard that the water cannot
be absorbed by the soil, and so spreads over the surface.
Another suggestion is that formerly the rivers were kept

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 319

within bounds by the forests which clothed their banks,
and that clearing the land of trees permits the water
to rush over it.

It had been our intention to proceed from Camden
Park to Illawarra on the coast, a thickly wooded district
resembling the jungle of the tropics, and we were assured
well worth a visit. This route, too, might have included
the convict gaol at Berrima, which we especially desired
to see, and also our projected trip to Mount Victoria
among the Blue Mountains. But the plan unavoidably
iell through and we returned to Sydney, starting again
on the 17th by the Great Western .Railway direct to
Mount Victoria, where we arrived about noon. It is five
hours distant from the capital, and a favourite resort
of her citizens, who, especially in the latter end of
summer, escaping thither from the depressing heat of her
moisture -laden atmosphere, luxuriate in its cool mountain
breezes.

After crossing the flat country the mountains are scaled
by means of a series of zigzags, this triumph of engineering
making the ascent perfectly easy. Until 1813 the Range
had presented an insurmountable barrier to further pro-
gress westward, but in that year a pass was discovered, and
in the next an excellent road was made by convict- labour
over the mountains.

This line of railway will connect Sydney with Mel-
bourne when the New South Wales portion of it is com-
pleted. The Victorian division is entirely finished ; and
the rest is so far advanced that the two capitals are now
brought within four days of each other.

The scenery as we ascended the mountains broken by
gorges, was different to anything we know in Europe.
The railway curves are sharp, often affording various views
of the same gorge ; and these are very deep, hemmed in by
perpendicular rocks and filled with the eucalyptus, which
growing together in large masses present, when seen from a
distance, somewhat the aspect of pine forests. Whether they
give to the mountains the soft blue colour whence these
derive their name, or whether this is an atmospheric effect,

320 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

we do not know, but the result from whatever cause is
lovely in the extreme.

The temperature on Mount Victoria, at the hamlet
which bears its name, is so much cooler than 'that of
Sydney that we even found a fire agreeable. It boasts two
inns, and some lodging- and private houses, besides a post
and telegraph office. Seeing " Public School " on a
rough wooden building we entered and found perhaps
thirty boys and girls presided over by a master, his wife,
we understood, giving instruction in needlework. This
small township does not furnish nearly all the pupils who
attend the school. They are drawn from the scanty popu-
lation of a large surrounding district, and some we heard
come eighteen miles by railway, travelling in the guard's
break and, we suppose, free of cost ; but trains are few and
far between, and irregular, too, we concluded, when we
were told that these little creatures sometimes do not
reach their homes till ten o'clock at night. The master,
as far as we could judge, was a competent teacher, and
well able to control his pupils. They looked both bright
and intelligent.

In the afternoon we drove towards Hartley, a coal
district named after the celebrated colliery at home, but
we fell short of the place itself, and so escaped seeing this
grand scenery disfigured by mining operations. The moun-
tains are wooded on their very summits, which are usually
flat, the sides being extremely precipitous.

On our way back we met some very characteristic
groups. First came a large heavily-laden cart, the
cautious driver walking beside it down the steep descent ;
then three rough-looking men in blouses and broad-
brimmed hats, probably on their way to the diggings, each
with his " swag " rolled up in his rug, passing over one
shoulder and under the other, and made secure by a strap.
A quarter of a mile behind them we encountered a
Chinese pedlar, his wares packed in two large light boxes
or baskets slung at either end of a long and slender
pole carried across his shoulder; and soon after passing
him we met the schoolmaster we had seen in the morning,

WHA T WE SA W IN A USTRALIA. 321

riding on horseback to his home five miles off after his
day's work.

Leaving the carriage at our inn, we hastened before
the daylight faded by a path, winding under trees on the
mountain -side, a spot commanding a fine view of Mount
Piddington. On our way we found the warratah, the
national flower of New South Wales, a bright crimson
blossom, or rather congeries of blossoms, resembling in
shape and size the cone of a cedar, and having long
crimson anthers. This handsome flower grows upon a
shrub having leaves not unlike in shape and colour those
of the arbutus, only somewhat longer.

The next day we devoted to a visit to Govat's Leap, a
very remarkable valley— one of the lions of New South
Wales — about five miles from Mount Victoria.

We followed for a considerable distance the high road
to Bathurst cut through the bush. The mass of gum-
trees on either side looked beautiful in their fresh summer
foliage. The young shoots are crimson, and when seen
against the blue sky, the sunshine gleaming through them,
the tree seems covered with gorgeous blossom. Leaving
the road we turned into the scrub, and drove over a sandy
soil among small gum-trees and mallee scrub. When at
length we quitted the carriage and had followed our guide
for a short distance, we suddenly came upon what appeared
to be an enormous rift in the ground, which yawned
beneath our feet. Far below was an undulating mass of
foliage — the tops of a forest of gum-trees, which covered
the whole bed of the valley. Vast was the height from
which we looked down, so that the trees had the appear-
ance of perfect stillness, forming in the glorious sunshine
a lovely crimson-tinted carpet, the shadows cast upon
them by the clouds giving continual variety to the colour-
ing. At the upper end of the valley towards the west,
the cliffs on either side were somewhat depressed. Here
a streamlet fell over the rocks, a sheer descent of 1200
feet, but so gentle its fall appeared, as we watched it
obliquely across the valley, that the water looked like
marabout-feathers softly floating downwards. Towards the

322 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

bottom it vanished from our sight among large stones,
and if in that dry season the stream made further progress
its course was hidden by the forest at its feet. Turning
towards the south, the brown, grey, and yellow rocks, rose
perpendicularly, the sunshine softening them into a
delicious harmony of colour ; and so great was the width
of the valley, that a waterfall on the opposite cliff looked,
from where we stood, like a silver thread against its side.
Beyond, the valley bore away in a southerly direction
until it was closed in by ranges of overlapping hills of
lovely blue — indigo or cobalt, as the blaze of the sun or
the shadow of the clouds fell upon them. But for the
faint murmur caused either by the falling of the water or
the wind among the trees the place was silent, and it was
almost devoid of animal life. A bird or two overhead, and
the noiseless lizards who ran over our dresses as we
attempted to sketch the scene, represented the whole
animal life within sight or hearing.

We had meant to extend our excursion as far as
Bowenfels, on the further side the pass, where the scenery
is said even to surpass that of Mount Victoria, and had
arranged to travel thither by luggage-train on the 19th,
chairs being promised us in the guard's van ; this we were
told was the regular substitute for places in passenger-
trains which run only three days a week. But the sudden
illness of one of our party compelled us to forego this
portion of our trip, and desiring the comfort and kindness
of Petty's Hotel we hastened back to Sydney.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 323

CHAPTER XIX.

Ragged School— Soup-kitchen and Night-refuge — Primary Education-
Fort Street Model School — Receiving-house for Pauper Lunatics —
Sydney Infirmary — Paramatta Protestant Orphanage — Liverpool
and Paramatta Asylums — Hyde Park Asylum — Jewish Sabbath-
School — Botany Bay — Monument to La Perouse — Middle Harbour
— Oysters — House of Assembly — Farewell to Sydney.

HEARING of a ragged school in Sydney, and desirous to
learn whether the class for whose benefit such institutions
have been established at home exists in New South Wales,

R visited it on the 24th November. It is carried on

in a large and airy schoolroom built of wood in an open
space in Kent Street, called a " poor street," but far too
wide and airy to resemble the narrow lanes of an English
town to which that appellation might be given. Boys
and girls are taught together in the morning, the latter
learning sewing in the afternoon. No other industrial
work of any kind is pursued in the school, though picture-
frames hanging round the walls, the work of former pupils,
attest that one trade at least has formerly been taught.
The master who has recently come into office could not
explain why it had been discontinued.

The habits of the pupils seem to resemble those of the
corresponding class in England. The attendance of many is
irregular, and they rarely remain after twelve years of a*"-e,
when usually they go to work. The fees at the public°or
government schools are not high, nor is there much diffi-
culty in obtaining a dispensation from them ; therefore the
need of such an institution as that in Kent Street, we con-
clude, must arise from the children who attend it belonging,
like those in the City Missionary School in Adelaide, to a
class too low to mix with the pupils of public schools.

Y 2

324 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

The school is supported entirely by voluntary contri-
butions, and is not under Government inspection. Admis-
sion is free. Every child applying to be received is asked
whether its parents are able to pay school fees, and an
answer in the negative secures its entrance. If, however,
it be afterwards discovered that this is an error the pupil
is dismissed ; but K — — did not understand what measures
were taken to test the truth of the child's statement. A
Sunday-school, managed entirely by voluntary teachers,
forms part of the institution.

No poor-law exists in New South Wales under the pro-
visions of which destitute persons can claim relief. This
want, however, is abundantly supplied by institutions of
every sort. Of these the greater number are largely
assisted, if not entirely supported, by the State ; but some
have been founded and are wholly maintained by volun-
tary effort. Among the latter is a Soup-kitchen and Night-
refuge, to which, as it is in Kent Street, E • bent her

steps on quitting the school. The aim of this institution
is, in the first instance, to give immediate assistance to
destitute persons, and then to help them if possible to
earn their own living. To all who bring a subscriber's
ticket — and these are easily obtained — a dinner is sup-
plied. If the applicant desire further help, he is expected
to work — he must pick a pound of oakum, and will then
be entitled to a supper of bread and meat, fish, or cheese,
as the case may be, and a bed. The latter means a
blanket on the floor, but mattresses are sometimes added
for persons who have held a better position. Breakfast
will also be given in the morning. Some applicants remain
in the Kefuge for six months, but none are allowed to be
idle ; those who can labour, and will not, are dismissed — the
whole work of the institution is performed by the inmates
in return for board and lodging. Many among them are
either weakly — usually having ruined their health by
drink — or have lost their character. Such, however, is
the demand for labour that all of this class who choose
to work can obtain it, and thus opportunities for re-

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 325

trieving a character are constantly recurring. The appli-
cants, though belonging to all grades of society, come
chiefly from the labouring classes; but some have been
clerks or shopkeepers, for whom there is, the manager
said, no demand in Sydney; but employment such as
cleaning knives and shoes, waiting in eating-houses, &c.,
may always be had if they can make up their minds to
take it. Some of the inmates are " ne'er-do-wells," sent
from England to be got rid of, as hopeless a class in
Sydney as elsewhere in Australia.

Persons acquainted with the rules of the institution are
not admitted after 9 P.M., but strangers are received at all
hours of the night if sober. Some even when drunk have
managed to get in without betraying their state, and
these are allowed to remain if they are quiet. The
manager said that occasionally a row was caused by a
drunken man, but not oftener perhaps than once in three
months; and latterly he had been more particular in
excluding applicants who were not sober.

Drink here, as everywhere else, is the great cause of
poverty and destitution. The licensing laws in Sydney,
we heard, have been made entirely in the interest of
the publicans, and the evils thus caused have become so
enormous that an outcry has been raised against them,
and there is now a prospect of improved legislation on this
subject. We were informed that scarcely any discretion
is exercised by magistrates in granting licences ; that no
inquiry is made respecting the need for a public-house
before a licence is given, and that if it be refused by the
magistrates of one district the applicant can easily obtain
it from those of another.

K 's visit to the Soup-kitchen was made at dinner-
time. The room in which they were dining was so bare
that not even a bench was provided. All were standing
while they ate their food, and the salt was in little heaps
on the table. In the kitchen an old man, cook to the
institution, and who had certainly made very good soup,
said he had been in the service of William IV.; pro-
bably he was an old soldier. There is a convenient
lavatory and bath-room. The dormitories are of the

326 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

plainest description — mere empty rooms without any
furniture, but they were clean and wholesome.

Women as well as men receive assistance from this
charity, lodgings being found for them in the neigh-
bourhood, as they cannot be received in the institution.
Female applicants, however, are only in the proportion of
one to five of the men. Places of service are easily ob-
tained for them, although encumbered with one or even
two children, who will be received in the house of the
employer, and allowed to live with their mother. The
manager pointed out a woman who he said was his own
servant, and she had her child living with her.

The institution appears admirably calculated to sift the
idle from the industrious, and to afford opportunity to all
who desire it to retrieve their characters and to rise into
an independent position in life.

Primary education in New South Wales, from 1848 to
1867, was under the control of two Boards, the National
and the Denominational, who received from Government
large sums of money in equal proportions. But in the
latter part of 1866 an Act had been passed which made
education a department of the State. It abolished these
Boards, substituting a Council of Education appointed by
the Governor, with the advice of his Executive Council.
The body thus created is intrusted with the disposal of all
moneys granted by the Legislature for primary education.
It has power to establish and maintain public, and afford
assistance to denominational, schools ; and possesses au-
thority, " subject to certain provisions, to appoint and
remove teachers or school inspectors; to frame regula-
tions ; to elect its own president ; to define the course of
secular instruction ; the training, examination, and classi-
fication of teachers ; the examination of scholars ; the dis-
cipline to be enforced Its regulations are laid

before Parliament, and have the force of law."*

Public schools are entirely secular, except that during
one hour in each day the children may receive religious

* ' Industrial Progress of New South Wales,' p. 407.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 327

instruction from the clergymen of their respective deno-
minations. If no such clergymen attend, then this hour
must be employed in secular study. The public school-
buildings may not be used for any political or religious
purpose; but the denominational school-rooms, which
have been built and are kept in repair by the different
religious bodies to which they belong, are often used both
for Sunday-schools and for public worship.

A public school may be established in any district
where it can be shown that there are twenty-five children
who will attend it regularly. The council, as a rule,
doubles the amount of private contributions for the
building and furnishing of a public school.

A denominational school must be in existence before
Government aid can be obtained. The council may then
certify it, provided it be not more than five miles distant
from a public school, and have an attendance of thirty
children ; while that of the public school must not fall
short of seventy.

The certificate is liable to be withdrawn if the building
become dilapidated or the apparatus insufficient, if the
pupils sink below the appointed number, or if the rules
of the council be otherwise infringed.

Provisional and half-time schools appear to be a sub-
division of the public schools, and " may be established
wherever twenty children of the school age, residing
within a radius of ten miles from a central point, can
be collected in groups of not less than ten children in
each ; " * they are generally taught by itinerant teachers,
who move about among the scattered population. A fee
of a shilling a-week for each child is charged, a reduction
being made for several pupils from one family; but if
the parents cannot pay a fee at all, the children are not
on that account refused.t

In thinly-peopled districts all denominations frequently
unite to support provisional schools. These, and also the
" half-time," may be regarded as tentative. Eventually

* ' Industrial Progress of New South Wales,' p. 408. f Ibid.

328 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

they are sometimes closed, and sometimes they are con-
verted into public schools. All aided by the State must,
of course, submit to Government inspection.

The total number of schools under the Council of Edu-
cation at the end of 1872 was 962, attended by 88,487
children, in a population of 600,000. The number of
public schools has steadily increased since 1867, while
those belonging to denominations have as steadily de-
creased. All teachers must be certificated. A training-
school is attached to the model public school in Sydney.

The supervision of country schools is intrusted to local
boards, whose duty it is to inspect and report upon them
to the council. Some do their work very efficiently, but
apathy appears to pervade the greater number.

The chief public school in New South Wales is in Fort
Street, Sydney. Mr. Parkes invited us to accompany
him thither on the 25th November. His intended visit
had been announced, and we found the whole establish-
ment prepared for our reception. We should have been
glad to see it also in its normal state, and that we might
do so the head master begged us to come in at any time,
but, to our regret, we never had leisure to profit by his
courteous invitation.

The school is in three divisions — for infants, girls, and
boys, each containing 500 pupils. We went first to the boys'
school-room — a noble apartment. The pupils, divided
into ten classes, are taught by six masters and four pupil
teachers. The head master said he considered that the
classes were not too large for efficient teaching, and that
the danger of letting the boys who are either idle or dull
escape work was prevented by the necessity of bringing
every scholar on ; for, if they remained longer than usual
in the lower classes the school inspector would call the
teacher to account. The first class performed some ex-
ercises in mental arithmetic so rapidly, that simply to
hear them was almost to take away one's breath ; reading
aloud followed, but that did not impress us as equally
good. We entered the girls' school-room, corresponding
in size to that of the boys', while they were singing ; and

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 329

when this was over, individuals from several classes were
called upon to read aloud.

We were glad to hear that the girls are taught sewing
in all its branches. They learn to make their own clothes,
and become so expert in fine needlework, that on quitting
the school they can obtain engagements in shops without
a premium.

There is a regular school curriculum which every pupil
must go through ; beyond this other branches of study
may be followed out of the regular school-hours. Latin
forms part of the boys' curriculum, and drawing that of
both sexes ; while for both French is an extra.

The infants are subdivided into three classes ; the
youngest sing and clap hands. &c., the next in order pro-
gress somewhat further in education, while the third learn
reading and writing. In the Inspector's report for 1872
we find this passage which, we confess, strikes us as irre-
sistibly funny. "The results disclosed by examination
are as follows : Babies good ; junior infants good ; senior
infants fair."

This school is, as far as we could learn, chiefly attended
by the children of superior artisans and small shopkeepers ;
but mixed with them are scholars of both a higher and
a lower class. The fees charged are in proportion to the
means of the parents, sixpence a-week being the lowest ;
while some pupils pay nothing.

Parents can, by representing their inability to pay
school-fees, obtain their remission without any difficulty,
and this applies to the whole colony. The report of the
Council states that, " the number of avowedly free scholars
continues to be yearly augmented, having now reached
7211 ; while the number professing to pay at the autho-
rised rates, but actually paying less, or even nothing at
all, is increasing still more rapidly ; " and further on it
speaks of " the systematic evasion of the payment of fees
by persons who cannot plead want of means as an ex-
cuse."* The head master at Fort Street (whose salary, we

Council of Education Report.' Sydney, 1872.

330 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

believe, amounts to 600Z. a-year) told us that no un-
pleasant feeling is created between the pupils who pay
and those who do not.

In the afternoon we paid a visit to the Keceiving-house
for pauper lunatics, to which persons who have shown
symptoms of insanity, and whose friends are unable to
support them in asylums, are committed while they await
the medical certificate which authorises their consignment
to the State Lunatic Asylum.

Unhappy creatures of this class attacked by mental
disease were usually in the first instance put in prison as
the only available place for their temporary safe-keeping.
The injustice as well as hardship of mixing persons suffering
from this calamity with those who have offended against
the law, induced the Legislature of New South Wales to
pass the humane Act under which this institution has
been established. Why it has not yet entirely super-
seded the gaol we have already explained.

The Keceiving-house is an airy, commodious building,
where the poor sufferers can be made as comfortable as their
condition permits. Several patients were there on the
day of our visit. One poor woman lay in a half-uncon-
scious state ; she obstinately refused all food. Another, an
aboriginal, was imbecile (the effect of age rather than of
disease), and seemed very comfortably enjoying her pipe
as she smilingly replied to our salutations. Some of the
inmates who are suffering only from a temporary attack
recover during their detention ; but the majority are sent
on to lunatic asylums.

Many of them attacked at a great distance from the
capital have to perform long journeys before they can
reach Sydney, which must, especially in the hot season,
considerably aggravate their malady. In a thinly-popu-
lated country like New South Wales this cannot be
avoided ; but it is consoling to reflect that at the end of
their painful journey they find shelter in the comfortable
Keceiving-house instead of incarceration within the gloomy
walls of a gaol. Let us hope the other Austrian colonies

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 331

will speedily follow the good example of New South
Wales!

On the 27th November we visited the Female School
of Industry, where girls are educated and trained for
domestic service. This institution, which has been in
existence for forty years, was until lately carried on in a
house close to the Domain. The land it occupied became
so valuable, that Government resumed possession of it, and
in its lieu have built a new and excellent house, plea-
santly situated on the outskirts of Sydney, abounding in
such conveniences, however, as the girls are not likely to
meet with in the houses of their future employers.

It seems the Legislature voted a certain sum (7,000?.
we believe) for building the house, which on its completion
was not exhausted. The committee of ladies who manage
the institution, naturally desired that the surplus should
be placed in their hands; but as the Legislature had
voted the 7000?. expressly for luilding alone, no part of
it could be devoted to any other purpose, and the com-
mittee, as a mode of using the remainder, put in all these
appliances.

The girls, forty-five in number at the time of our visit,
perform under the supervision of the officers all the
work of the house, washing, baking, milking (their cows
graze in the Domain), and dairy-work inclusive. The
bread which we tasted was very good, and the house was
in excellent order.

From the Female School of Industry we went to a
similar institution, but of an humbler character. The
house was small and even shabby inside, and the few
conveniences it possessed were of the simplest kind ; yet
as far as we could judge in a hasty visit the essentials of
successful training were present. An atmosphere of home
pervaded the house ; and in the endeavour of the man-
agers to induce the parents to contribute something towards
the education of their children, is found the best safe-
guard against their benevolent intentions being marred
by engendering a spirit of pauperism.

In beauty of situation the infirmary of Sydney must be

332 WHA T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA.

almost unrivalled ; standing on high ground, the spectator
from the balconies at the rear of the building looks over
the lovely Domain, with its trees and green sward, to
Woolloomooloo Bay on the southern side of the harbour.
Bat it is an old building, and deficient in many requisites
considered essential in a modern hospital. The question
of altering or building it on the present site, or of erecting
a new one in a different place, has been for some time
under discussion, and at the period of our visit no definite
plan had been adopted.

Some years since, the Government, desiring to improve
the nursing in the hospital, and also to establish a train-
ing-school for private nurses, erected a delightful dwelling
for them within the enclosure of the infirmary, and were
fortunate enough to obtain, through an application to St.
Thomas's Hospital in London, the services of a highly
competent lady as superintendent. She arrived in 1868,
accompanied by five trained sisters to form the nucleus
of the school, which has proved a valuable acquisition to
Sydney. The lady superintendent, Miss Osburn, kindly
showed us both her own special institution and the hospital.
The wards are as commodious as the old-fashioned building
allows, and the patients were evidently well cared for. A
few days prior to our visit there had been a terrible acci-
dent by the overturn of an omnibus down a steep bank,
in which several men had been severely hurt, who, poor
fellows, were patients in the infirmary the day we visited
it. They lay, some unable to move, others with their heads
bound up, presenting a melancholy spectacle.

The Public Charity Commissioners politely invited us
to accompany them in inspecting some institutions they
considered would be particularly interesting to us, and on
November 25th we went with them to Paramatta. Our
first visit was to a Protestant orphan school, founded in
1814. It stands on the banks of the Paramatta river,
here a small and, when we saw it, a muddy stream,
which we had to cross by a ferry. The lower reaches, the
beauty of which we often heard extolled, and always in-
tended to see, we never unfortunately found leisure to visit.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 333

Both this school and the Catholic orphanage, which we
have already described, were established for the reception of
destitute orphans, and are the only charitable institutions
in the colony of a sectarian character which are under the
direct control of the Government. Both are entirely sup-
ported by the State. The buildings of that we visited to-day
are old, but they are commodious and well situated. The
instruction given is very good. The boys work in the
garden, the girls in the house and laundry, and all ap-
peared healthy and happy. We were much amused by a
group of very lively little girls, with their shoes and
stockings taken off, scrubbing diligently the pavement of
a verandah, each one cleaning her own particular stone,
and all seeming thoroughly to enjoy their work.

Two hundred and fifty children can be accommodated,
and they are received from three years old to thirteen.
On reaching this age they are apprenticed. Unfortu-
nately no organisation exists for the supervision of the
young people after they have quitted the school, and
therefore no accurate estimate can be formed of their
success in life — an omission which should be supplied as
soon as possible.

The two other institutions — one at Paramatta the other
at Liverpool, a small country town eight miles further
from Sydney — we visited to-day, are both asylums for men
incapacitated by age or sickness from gaining their own
livelihood, and corresponding precisely with the infirm
wards of our workhouses. They are supported entirely from
State funds, and are under the control of the Colonial
Secretary. The building at Paramatta originally in-
tended for barracks, and that at Liverpool, were erected
during Governor Macquarie's rule, which lasted from 1810
to 1821. Neither is well adapted to its use, but the latter
is the better of the two.

The Liverpool asylum contained to-day rather more
than six hundred inmates; all are feeble, and nearly a
third are confined to their beds. The greater proportion
are old ; some are blind, others lame, yet the whole work

334 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

of the institution, even to the duties of clerk and dis-
penser, are efficiently performed by those among them
who are not altogether incapacitated from labour. There
are but two officers, — the surgeon-superintendent, Dr.
Strong, who is, however, permitted to take private practice
also, and the matron, under whose control are the whole of
the domestic arrangements. This lady is the widow of
the late master, and was appointed his successor on her
husband's death.

As our visit had not been notified, there could have
berjn no preparation, and we therefore saw the asylum
in its normal condition. Our arrival being announced to
Mrs. Burnside, the matron, she conducted us over the
building — through the wards, the laundry, the dormitory,
and into the work-rooms — where we found the inmates
occupied in the different trades required in the institu-
tion ; while the kitchen had its cooks and the wards
their nurses. Indeed, work was going on in every de-
partment. Mrs. Burnside showed us a new shoemaker's
shop erected by the inmates themselves, and a very
compact, well-constructed building it looked. Next she
took us through a well-cultivated garden, which sup-
plies the institution with all the vegetables it con-
sumes except potatoes. Then passing into the recrea-
tion-ground, we found ourselves in a large paddock, nine
acres in extent, recently added to the institution. Here
were old men reclining on the seats put up by them-
selves or their companions, and enjoying the view of
trees planted by the same hands. In the garden was a
little carriage made by one of the men, and used by those
who cannot walk, so that even the cripples are able to
enjoy the recreation-ground. In the refectory tea was being
prepared. Ample plain food is provided ; but little indul-
gences, such as butter and fruit, the inmates purchase for
themselves with the money they receive for their services.

Every one is remunerated for what he does, and as far
as possible is paid by piece-work ; and this seems to be
the motive power which keeps the whole machinery of the

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 335

asylum in smooth and regular action. A class similar to
that we find very difficult to manage at home here form
a well-ordered community; and yet the raw material
worked up with such success is quite as unpromising as
that we have in England.

The evidence before the Public Charities Commission
given by Mrs. Burnside and Dr. Strong shows that drink
is the primary cause which consigns nearly the whole of
the inmates to the asylum; and that a "third of their
number are sick, many of whom are suffering from severe
illness. The deaths from January 1st to June 30th, 1873,
averaged 13 a month in a population of about 680.

Moreover, the inmates can quit the asylum when they
choose, and feel pretty certain that on again applying to
the authorities they will be allowed to return — just as°the
corresponding class at home can leave the workhouse and
come back to it at pleasure. The medical officer has no
legal power of detention over those even whom he knows
will get intoxicated if they can procure liquor, though in
some cases he does prevent their exit. Nor are the men
naturally industrious. The larger proportion of them
are ex -convicts; yet so cheerful and industrious an air
prevails that it was difficult to recognise, as we walked
through the wards, the workshops, and the garden, that
we were among sick and aged paupers.

Mrs. Burnside, a woman of great capacity and excellent
disposition, whose whole being seemed occupied in pro-
moting the welfare and comfort of her proteges, spoke of
them almost with affection ; and remarked that, though
convicts, they were by no means unpleasant people to
live with. To Dr. Strong we had the pleasure of being
only introduced, as he was absent during the greater part
of our most interesting visit, but we heard him spoken of
in high terms as an excellent officer.

From all we witnessed at the Liverpool asylum we can
heartily endorse the following paragraph from the report
of the Commission : —

" This plan of giving small gratuities appears to answer
remarkably well ; and as the demand for work always ex-

336 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

ceeds the supply, it is put into other hands if badly done.
Of the economy of the system there can be no doubt, as
persons in the wards now earning fourpence a-day perform
the duties for which servants were paid 357. a year, and
the whole cost of each inmate is now only 91. 8s. 8%d. In
a moral point of view the system is excellent, as amongst
those who are still able to work it keeps alive some feelings
of self-respect, and tempers that sense of abject poverty
which must embitter the thoughts of some, at all events,
who are compelled to seek refuge in such an asylum. They
might all doubtless be compelled to give their services for
their bread. ' If any would not work neither should he
eat,' is doubtless good in theory, but we question whether
it would be possible to carry this theory into practice in
such an institution without resorting to a system of coer-
cion which, with such feeble old men, is revolting to our
feelings of humanity. And in the case of the sick and
infirm who is to decide upon the limits of their incapacity ?
It is far better to attach such inducements to the work, and
to apportion it out so wisely, that it is cheerfully under-
taken and satisfactorily performed The vigour and

energy displayed by the Surgeon-Superintendent and the
Matron appear to have infused themselves into the very
inmates, — the tailors, shoemakers, and other workers,
applying themselves with a cheerfulness and eagerness
pleasant to witness."*

The Paramatta asylum is managed on the same prin-
ciples, but does not attain equal success, in part owing,
the Commissioners consider, to the inferiority of the
building.

A similar asylum for women at Sydney standing on high
ground in a beautiful situation, and in one of the fashion-
able quarters of the town, was also erected by Governor
Macquarie, traces of whose tenure of office seem to pervade
all parts of the colony settled during his rule. It contains
more than two hundred inmates, the greater proportion of
whom are old or sick. The few young women are either

1 Public Charities Commission Report,' p. 144.

WHAT WE SAW IX AUSTRALIA. 337

blind, cripples, or idiots, for whom there is no other refuge.
As the asylum is in the metropolis, it does not require a
resident medical officer, but is managed by the matron,
Mrs. Hicks, whose qualifications are as remarkable as those
of Mrs. Burnside. She and one laundress are the only
officers in the institution, the whole of the work, nursing
included, being performed by the inmates, who also make
all their own clothing, with the exception of boots and
shoes.

The house affords good bathing accommodation, and the
old women have their warm baths regularly. One who has
attained the age of 106 "goes," said Mrs. Hicks, "into
a tub every Saturday morning like my own baby." This
old woman, whom we saw in her bed, is doubtless an ex-
convict. She told us she had come out in Governor 's

time (we could not catch the name), a genteel way of con-
cealing the manner of her arrival. At meals* the old
women are divided into messes of eight, the strongest
being chosen captain of the mess. She fetc-hes the dinner,
and, we conclude, carves for her mess-mates; but every
woman pours out her own tea. Small gratuities are given
for the work performed, as at Liverpool, and the women
looked as cheerful and happy as the old men there. Their
annual cost per head is only 10Z. 16s. ll^cZ.

Through the kindness of a Jewish friend we were invited
to see both the week-day and Sabbath-schools in Sydney,
supported by that denomination. Much to our regret, we
were only able from lack of time to visit the one which
corresponds to the Sunday-schools attached to Christian
churches, but which is held of course on Saturday. We
reached the large and handsome synagogue soon after ser-
vice had ended, and found the younger members of the
congregation divided into numerous classes according to
age, social distinctions being evidently ignored. The Old
Testament was the subject of study, and instructors and
pupils (some of whom varied little in years) were alike
earnestly engaged in the lessons.

Many of the elder relatives of the scholars had remained;
and when the classes broke up an interesting little cere-

z

338 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

mony took place in the presentation, to the best pupil
during the past year of each sex, of a testimonial of merit,
the annual gift of Baroness Lionel de Rothschild. A few
kindly words were spoken to the children by a member of
the congregation, who represented the donor of the medals,
and this was followed by a short address from the Rabbi.

In its course he made an allusion very gratifying to E

and ourselves ; telling his young flock, in reference to the
accidental presence among them of nieces of Sir Rowland
Hill, of the benefits bestowed upon the whole world by the
author of cheap postage.

December 4th. This afternoon a friend took us to Botany
Bay, about eight miles from Sydney. After driving across
the city and its suburbs, in a southerly direction, we
reached the scrub over which a considerable portion of
our route lay. We saw many beautiful wild flowers, but
owing to the boggy nature of the ground, could gather
but few. Farther on we passed a hotel standing in beauti-
ful gardens, a favourite honeymoon resort we were told,
and bearing the name of Sir Joseph Banks, the celebrated
botanist.

Reaching the bay, we bent our steps to the monument
raised to the memory of the brave French navigator, La
Perouse.

An elegant structure of white stone rises on the green
sward at a little distance from the sea. The monument
stands in a railed enclosure planted with shrubs, of which we
obtained the key from the guardian living near, and went
inside. On its base the following inscription is engraved —

A LA MKMOIBE

DE
MONSIEUR DE LA PEROUSE.

CETTE TERRE

QU'lL VI8ITA EN MDCCLXXXVIII
E8T LA DEHNIERE D'OU IL A FAIT PARVENIB

DE SES NOUVELLES.
IllRIGfi AU NOM DE LA FRANCE

PAR LES 80IN8 DE MM. DE BOUGAINVILLE ET DAMPIER

COMMANDANT LA FRKGATE LA THETIS ET LA CORVETTE EgPERANCE

EN RELACHE AU PoRT-jACKSON

EN M0CCCV.

WHAT WE SAW IN A USTRALIA. 33,9

Born in 1741, La Perouse entered the French navy at
an early age, and became a distinguished officer, no less
remarkable for humanity than for his well-known bravery

and enterprise, as the following anecdote will show:

During the war between France and England he was dis-
patched to Hudson's Bay to take possession of the estab-
lishments of the Company occupying that territory. One
of these, Fort York, fell into his hands without resistance,
having no garrison to defend it. Not desiring to hold the
place, he ordered it to be destroyed, and prepared for re-
embarkation ; but learning that some Englishmen had
escaped into the woods, he left provision and arms for their
use, fearing they might either die of hunger or fall into
the hands of the savages.

Peace being concluded in 1783, the French Government
despatched La Perouse to the Pacific, hoping to rival the
English in their discoveries in that part of the globe.
After rounding Cape Horn, visiting the Californian coast and
penetrating as far as Avatsha, in Kamtchatka, he reached
Botany Bay, but to find Captain Phillip, the first Governor
of .New South Wales, already arrived. Sailing away he
was never heard of again. Several ships were dispatched
by the French Government in search of him, and it was at
length ascertained that his vessel had been wrecked on one
of the Santa Cruz islands, thenceforth called by the French
from this circumstance, we believe, Isle de la Recherche.

Before leaving the spot we plucked some of the violets
growing round the foot of the memorial to the gallant and
ill-fated Frenchman, which it is gratifying to possess on
British soil.

Our delightful visit to Sydney was drawing to a close.
We had relinquished our plan of returning overland to
Melbourne, and had taken our berths by the ' Citv of
Adelaide,' intending to start on the 9th ©('December, that
morning, however, news came that the crew of our steamer
had struck, and consequently she could not move. Thus
we had a day's grace, as the ' Wentworth,' which sup-
plied her place, would not leave Sydney till the next
evening; and heartily rejoicing in the delay, we accepted

z2

340 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

an invitation to spend the afternoon in the lovely Middle
Harbour.

Port Jackson is famous for its oysters, which fasten
themselves to the rocks in every direction, literally by
millions. They are generally much smaller than those
we are familiar with in Europe, and the shape of their
shells is most irregular. Diminutive size, however, is
not characteristic of all oysters in Australia. Those, for
instance, found at Port Lincoln are remarkably large,
equalling a half-crown in circumference, and thick in pro-
portion, while their flavour is excellent. Picnic parties,
we were told, will often start from Sydney, carrying with
them the minor accessories for an oyster-feast, the mol-
luscs themselves being to be had simply for the gathering.
We landed at a spot this afternoon where not only the
rocks were encrusted with them, but they were even
adhering to the roots of trees, and the friends who were
with us did not let us depart without tasting the delicacy
as fresh as it is possible to be.

Our delay in quitting Sydney enabled us to pay a
second visit to the House of Assembly, under the escort
of the Member for Paramatta, " the Father of the House,"
and in the hope of hearing Mr. Parkes, who bears a high
reputation as a speaker, address the Chamber.

The Houses of Parliament at the upper end of Mac-
quarie Street have nothing striking in their exterior, but
the Chamber in which the Lower House meets is a
spacious and well-proportioned apartment, handsomely
fitted up. That of the Legislative Council we did not
see. By the courtesy of the Speaker* we had seats just
outside the bar — that sacred portal itself, of course, no
stranger can pass.

The Postmaster-General is now in England, engaged in
negotiations connected with the establishment of the new
mail route by San Francisco. His absence is not ap-
proved, it appears, by the Opposition, as we learnt from

* The Hon. W. M. Arnold, the news of whose melancholy death by
drowning from the flooding of the Puterson river has lately reached
England. February, 1875.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.' 341

the following motion by Mr. Buchanan : — " That in the
opinion of this House, the long-continued absence of the
Postmaster-General from the performance of the duties
of his office, while he continues to draw from the public
treasury a large salary, is in itself a wrong worthy of the
condemnation of this House ; while at the same time the
absence of the responsible head of an important depart-
ment of the State cannot be otherwise than detrimental
to the due and proper conduct of the business of that
department.

" That the above resolution be conveyed by address to
His Excellency the Governor."

Mr. Parkes, to our disappointment, did not undertake
the defence of the Government himself, but entrusted it
to one of his colleagues. It was, however, perfectly suc-
cessful, Mr. Buchanan's motion being negatived by a
large majority. In the course of the debate, which was
extremely lively, feeling being strong on the occasion,
many of the members, unable to restrain themselves,
rose to their legs, and spoke all at the same time. The
Speaker did not at once interfere, thinking possibly that
the shortest method of ending the melee would be to let
the members tire themselves out. But, after an interval,
the clamour showing no signs of subsidence, he quietly
rose. A respectful silence immediately ensued. With
much dignity he uttered the following words : — a Gentle-
men, it is perfectly free to every member to address this
House, but it will be more convenient if only one speaks
at a time." The rebuke was sufficient.

Next day, the 10th, with great regret we bid farewell
to Sydney and to our kind friends there, and embarking
on board the ' Wentworth,' reached Melbourne about noon
on the 13th of December.

342 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

CHAPTEE XX.

Arrival at Melbourne — All England Eleven — Hot Wind — Christmas
Holidays — Toorak — Penal Servitude Commission — Larrikins— Act
of 1864 — Industrial Schools — Boarding-out — Abbotsford Reforma-
tory and Eefuge — Voluntary Supervision.

THE P. and 0. boat, with the English mail, reached her
anchorage at Sandridge on December 13th, just before the
' Wentworth ' drew up alongside the quay. Her letter-bags
were already discharged, and her passengers \vere hastening
in little boats to the shore. Among them were the All Eng-
land Eleven, whose advent had been for many weeks a topic
of interest, and whose enthusiastic reception we were just
in time to witness. Coaches, drawn by four horses, awaited
them on the pier, and long before we with bag and baggage
could reach the land, the cricketers had driven off amid
cheers of welcome. Early in the afternoon we were
established in rooms which we had engaged by telegram
from Sydney at Menzies' Hotel, the Mivart's of Melbourne.
Although nearly midsummer, the heat was not oppres-
sive. On the following Monday, however, we had our first
experience of a hot wind. Before we went out we were
aware that a strong wind was blowing, but so well-built
is this hotel, that until we opened the hall-door we were
"unconscious of the heat which accompanied it. The sensa-
tion, on quitting the house, was precisely the same as on
entering the hot room of a Turkish bath. This prevailed
in places so sheltered that the air was still. The heat
was greater in the teeth of the wind ; but it was always
a dry heat, and not unpleasant to us, to whom it was a
new experience. It lasted on the present occasion only
a few hours. Sometimes it continues for three days
at Melbourne (in Adelaide it has been known to blow

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 343

unintermittingly for eleven), and becomes very ex-
hausting. Residents feel it far more than new comers,
and dislike encountering it so much that it is considered
a sufficient reason for breaking any not very important
engagement.

December 16th. E was to leave us to-day for Ade-
laide, and on quitting the house to accompany her to the
steam-boat we discovered a fresh change of temperature,
of which in-doors we had been ignorant. The air was now
so chilly that it was absolutely necessary to delay and put
on additional clothing even to walk a short distance through
the streets.

The time of our visit to Melbourne was unfavourable to
our seeing some of its institutions. The schools were soon
closed, Parliament was not sitting, and people were leaving
town for the Christmas holidays. Others, indeed, were
coming in from the country to enjoy the gaieties of Mel-
bourne, and, above all, to witness the cricket match on
Boxing Day. Thus the hotels were very full, as we learnt
one morning when the manager of ours informed us that our
rooms had been telegraphed for by an old customer, and that
Mr. Menzies must request us to give them up. On asking
if others as good were prepared for us, we found that
only inferior ones were offered, and there appeared no
anxiety to regard our convenience at all. We then inquired
if the law concerning hotels and their guests were the
same in Victoria as in England, and on the manager
admitting it was, we declined to move. Our refusal, how-
ever, was not accepted, and it was plain that no objection
would be felt to turn two ladies, travelling in a strange
land, into the street. We rejoined that whatever the
law and customs of the country required we would do,
and would refer to some one of the gentlemen we knew,
living at Melbourne, on the subject — for instance, to

Mr. . At the mention of this name the manager's

countenance changed. He was sure Mr. Menzies had no
wish to put us to inconvenience ; he would speak to him,
and let us know. In three minutes he returned to say
that the rooms were at our disposal.

344 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

We found the hotel in all respects excellent, with the
exception of this unsatisfactory incident, which, with the
refusal of some railway porters at Sydney to do their duty,
formed the only exception to the uniform courtesy we
experienced during the whole of our sojourn in Australia ;
a courtesy often accompanied by active kindness and
indifference to trouble in entire strangers, for which it
is impossible adequately to express our thanks.

• In the afternoon a drive of three or four miles out of
town to Government House led us through Toorak, the
most fashionable suburb of Melbourne. Handsome man-
sions, approached by carriage-sweeps, stand far back from
the broad, white, and at this season it must be owned, very
dusty road, recalling the approach to some important cities
in Southern Europe ; while an ivy-covered church and its
adjacent parsonage look intensely English. The present
residence of the Governor, standing in pretty grounds on
the banks of the Yarra, is a hired one and small for its
purpose; but a vast palace is rising, much nearer to
Melbourne, presenting in its conspicuous position a most
imposing aspect.

Before we left England our attention had been drawn
to the treatment of adult and juvenile offenders in Victoria
by the .Reports, recently presented to the Colonial Parlia-
ment, of a Eoyal Commission appointed in 1870.* In
these very able documents, founded upon evidence gathered
from Europe and America, as well as upon that of the
witnesses of great experience examined by the Commission,
were expounded, in a catholic and philosophic spirit, the
principles laid down by leading authorities on the repres-
sion of crime ; and though some were rejected the value
of which is recognised at home, many of vital importance
were accepted and made the basis of practical suggestions
for the future government of Victorian prisons.

The Report endorses the opinion that, with regard to a
large class of criminals, the infliction of punishments is

* 'Report (No. 2) on Penal and Prison Discipline:' Victoria, 1871;
and ' Itcport (No. 3) on Industrial and Reformatory Schools.' Victoria,
1872. John Ferres, Government Printer, Melbourne.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 345

ineffectual to deter them from persevering in evil courses.
" Thus a systematic course of reformatory treatment con-
stitutes an indispensable part of any effective scheme
of penal discipline, ami all the several portions should be
framed with a direct view to that end. . . . Reformatory
treatment requires to be carried forward with comparative
slowness and caution from stage to stage. Time becomes
an essential element . . . and the logical conclusion is,
that the minimum period of imprisonment in all penal
sentences for serious offences should be of considerable
length." * The distinction is carefully drawn between casual
and frequent offenders. The even greater turpitude and
danger to society is recognised of " crime-capitalists " as
compared with the actual thief; and the introduction, with
certain adaptations, of our " Habitual Criminals Act " of
1869 is recommended, with the suggested provision "of
severer punishment . . . for persons found guilty of har-
bouring reputed thieves or receiving stolen goods." |

The Report admits " scarcely any substantial distinction
between habitual drunkenness and lunacy," and recom-
mends that " the Lunacy Statute . . . should be amended
so as to include habitual drunkards." J It makes a sugges-
tion, which seems worthy of consideration in any com-
munity sufficiently limited for its members to be mutually
recognisable, namely, that policemen should be employed
for certain appointed periods as prison warders. "Two
years might be fixed as the term of engagement, the time
being reckoned as service in the force. At the end of the
term the officer would be replaced by another, and would
return to his ordinary duties. By this arrangement the
police-force would gain a ' face-knowledge ' of the criminal
population." §

We find the growing evil of "larrikinism" dwelt upon
in the evidence. " Larrikin " seems to be almost synony-
mous with our " rough," except that it applies to young
persons only at present, and that these appear to be even

* Report (No. 2), p. v. t Ibid. p. viii.

J Ibid. p. xi. An Inebriate Asylum Las since been established, with legal
power of detention. § Ibid. p. xx.

346 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

more audacious than is their class usually at home. The
offences charged against them seldom apparently include
theft, but usually consist in licentious and obscene be-
haviour. The " larrikin " indulges in the coarsest and
most insulting language addressed to inoffensive passers-
by, and this is sometimes attended with personal violence,
which we were told may be encountered in even the best
streets of Melbourne.

The evil is attributed in great part to the absence of
due training and parental control in childhood, and this
probably has led the commissioners to make a suggestion,
which, though startling at first, appears to be based
upon a just principle. " It is undeniable," says the Report,
" that a large measure of responsibility does in many
instances rest upon the parents when children and youths,
who are still under parental guardianship, are brought
before the tribunals as offenders against the law. It is
fitting that in such instances the culpability of neglecting
to exercise proper parental control should be brought
home to the parents in a practical manner. We therefore
recommend that it shall be left to the discretion of the
bench, upon proof of the parents' culpable negligence, of
which a previous conviction shall be deemed sufficient
primd facie evidence, to impose on them a fine (not
exceeding five pounds), and to order them to make good
any damage that may have been done to property by the
delinquent." *

There has, however, been no indifference on the part of
the State to her own duty in preventing the growth of
juvenile crime. Neither money nor care have been spared,
though these appear sometimes not to have been expended
to the best advantage. In 1864, special legislation had
become necessary to meet the evil. Prior to that time,
" children coming under the care of the Government were
kept at the Immigrants' Home, Prince's Bridge. In the
year 1858, ... it contained about fifty children of this
class; but the numbers increased very rapidly, so that

* Keport (No. 2), J>. xiii.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 347

in 1864 they amounted to nearly 600, and the rate of
increase was yearly augmenting.

" This large increase was caused mainly by the exten-
sive and indiscriminate immigration that flowed into the
colony in the years following upon the gold discoveries,
and the very unsettled state of society which arose
from it, as a necessary consequence. The bulk of the
population were for years without fixed homes ; families
were broken up by dissolute habits, children left desti-
tute by the frequent fatal accidents that occurred at
the mines, and the bonds of parental obligation were
weakened or ruptured by a roving life and fluctuating
fortunes. So long as this state of things continued, the
rate of increase in the numbers of children thrown upon
public charity augmented year by year; but there was
reason to hope that when society had become compara-
tively settled and prosperous this rate would diminish.
Experience has proved, however, that the reverse has been
the case.

"It therefore became imperative on the Government
to make provision for the maintenance and education of
these children, and thus the schools were commenced."*
They sprang from the " Neglected and Criminal Chil-
dren's Act," passed in 1864. This provides that indus-
trial schools for the former, and reformatory schools
for the latter class of children, may be established by
Government, or by voluntary agency. .It contains, also,
a somewhat remarkable provision, namely, that individual
convicts under sixteen years of age may be assigned,
under certain conditions, by any judge of the Supreme
Court of Victoria, to parents or other guardians deemed
fit for the charge.

Young persons under fifteen years of age are children
within the meaning of the Act, and may be committed
for not less than one, or more than seven years ; and when
half the period of detention has expired, they may be
placed out on licence. The cost of their maintenance

* Report (No. 3), pp. ii:. iv.

348 WHAT WE SA W IN AUSTRALIA.

is made recoverable from parents to the amount of ten
shillings a-vveek.*

The history of the schools first established affords fresh
illustration of the evils arising from unsuitable buildings,
the agglomeration of large numbers, and absence of classi-
fication ; and also from the lack of the voluntary element
in the management of these institutions. " The inmates
were allowed to sink into a condition of the greatest
neglect. Those diseases which especially exhibit the
absence of care and comfort amongst children aggregated
in large numbers, namely, cutaneous affections and oph-
thalmia, were almost universal ; and the mortality during
the two first years was excessively great. It should be
added, that the Government, upon being made aware of
the existence of these evils, did all that could be done
under the circumstances to remedy them ; and in course
of time they were much mitigated. But their occurrence
proves the exceedingly unfavourable conditions under
which the system commenced ; and some of its original
detects are yet far from being removed."!

In June 1872, when the Commissioners inspected these
establishments, there were twelve in operation under the
Act, including two school-ships. Two of the schools were
for Roman Catholics, and were under the voluntary man-
agement of members of religious orders ; and a school at
Sandhurst was under the control of a local committee, all
being subsidised and inspected by the State. The whole
number contained 1248 girls and 1378 boys, of whom,
however, only 59 girls and 125 boys were " convicted,"
i.e. were in reformatory schools, having been found guilty
of criminal offences. The " neglected," located in nine
industrial schools, were of a very mixed class, including
not only those needing preventive discipline, but many
who were simply under the care of the State as destitute.
The evil of such association is dwelt upon in the Report,

* ' An Act for the Amendment of the law relating to Neglected and
Criminal Children ; ' June 2nd, ISG-i. Ferres ; Melbourne,
f llcport (No. 3), p. iv.

WHAT WE SAW AY AUSTRALIA. 349

and so also is the laxness with which parents are per-
mitted to throw the maintenance of their children on the
public funds ; whence it must be inferred that the pro-
vision of the Act for recovering the cost from them was
very inadequately carried into effect.

The Commissioners recommend that " neglected "
children should be provided for out of local funds, sub-
sidised by the State, the "convicted" remaining wholly
chargeable on the central authorities ; and they urge
an increase of voluntary agency in the treatment of
both classes. They also advise the extension of the age
at which children shall be liable to committal to Industrial
and Reformatory schools to 16 and 18 respectively ; and
that the age up to which " neglected " and " convicted "
children who have absconded may be relegated to school
should be raised to 16 and 21 years respectively.

For the " neglected," however, they urge in the strongest
terms the adoption of the Boarding-out System to such
an extent that the schools shall become merely reception-
houses, and places of detention for the comparatively few
to whom boarding-out cannot be applied ; and that all
these remaining inmates shall attend the common schools.
They earnestly invite the co-operation of ladies in admin-
istering the system, and state that they have already
consulted clergymen of different creeds on the best means
of obtaining suitable homes for the children. "The
ministers of the several Protestant denominations declared
their willingness to merge their minor differences, and to
act in unison, so that in the disposal of Protestant children
no distinction of sect would be allowed to interfere with
the general working of the plan. The Catholic bishop
states his willingness to take under his care, and provide
for, the whole of the children of that denomination at
present in the industrial schools and reformatories,
together with those who may hereafter be brought in, on
condition of the State making a weekly payment for each
child. The co-operation of the religious bodies being
secured, as well as that of the leading citizens and of
benevolent ladies in the various_ localities, there can

350 WHAT WE SAW IN A USTRALIA.

hardly be a doubt that a sufficient number of suitable
families would be found. The same valuable agencies,
moreover, would be kept constantly in action by means of
the local committees to watch over the children, so as to
secure for them proper mental and religious instruction.
The system, when thus carried out, and kept carefully
under official inspection, becomes very far superior to any
other method that could be devised. The point of per-
fection in dealing with destitution is reached when the
mutual co-operation of private charity with State bounty
is brought into the fullest activity."*

The Commissioners, probably recognising the likelihood
in a new country of the extensive adoption of children
into the families where they had been placed to board,
suggest that any person adopting, with legal sanction, a
child who had been abandoned by its parents, should
become responsible for its care, and acquire full control over
it until it reached the age of twenty-one. But they do not
omit to urge that " arrangements should be made with
the Governments of the neighbouring colonies for ' back-
ing warrants ' to apprehend offenders who desert their
families, or abscond in order to avoid paying orders made
for their support ; so that they may be brought back to
Victoria in default of making satisfactory arrangement
for payment."!

Having by the perusal of these reports acquired some
theoretical knowledge of the state of criminal discipline
in Victoria, we desired, now that we were on the spot, to
observe its practical administration; and received from
Mr. Duncan, the head of the Penal and Reformatory
Department, and also Inspector-General of Prisons
and Reformatories, all possible facilities for seeing the
institutions under his direction. He most kindly accom-
panied us on several occasions ; but to the Convent of the
Good Shepherd, at Abbotslbrd, in the outskirts of Mel-
bourne, where there is both an Industrial and a Reforma-
tory School for girls, we went alone, on December 17th.

Report (No. 3), p. xiii. t Ibid. p. xxi.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 351

The nuns have a penitentiary under their charge in the
same building, but we understood that the inmates never
mingle with the school children. It would have been
better, we thought, to have the three institutions entirely
separate.

There are nearly 200 girls, from one to sixteen years of
age, belonging to the two schools, and therefore, of course,
under different conditions of committal ;* but they are, to
a great extent, mixed together. They do all the house-
work of the portion of the building they occupy, and their
own washing; and the elder girls work in the garden.
Individuals among these also, if not morally unfit, have
each, to some extent, charge of four or five little ones,
being responsible for their neatness and cleanliness.

The elder girls are divided from the younger at night.
A nun sleeps close to each dormitory ; and the proportion
of these ladies engaged in the care of the children seemed
large.

We had arrived, unfortunately, at an inconvenient hour
for visitors, and in consequence did not go over the whole
of the children's department. The school-room was crowded
and somewhat close, and the pupils were by no means
trim in appearance. As regards health and brightness,
they looked about equal to workhouse children at home.
Their cost for 1873 has been under 131. a-head ; so low a
sum being attributable, probably, to the absence of salaried
officers. The children, as a rule, are placed out on licence
as early as the law permits ; but if, when the period of
their sentence is fulfilled they are not fit for service or
discharge, their recommittal, if they be still under the
limit of age appointed by the Act, can be obtained. The
employer of a licensed child signs an agreement to observe
certain conditions in respect to it, including the supply of
proper clothing, food, and medical attendance, opportunity
to attend public worship and Sunday-school, and permission
to an appointed agent of the Government to visit the

* Children guilty of the slightest offence are sent to Reformatories, In-
dustrial Schools receiving only the " neglected " aud " destitute."

352 WE A T WE SA W IN A USTRALIA.

licensee. He agrees also to give wages, beginning with a
shilling a-week for a boy and sixpence for a girl ; half
the amount is to be paid quarterly in advance to the
department, and the remainder at the end of the quarter
to the child.

A system of voluntary supervision over the licensees,
from all Industrial and Reformatory Schools in Victoria,
is exercised, partly by the " Ladies' Visiting Association "
— founded specially for this object — and partly by visiting
committees of the Young Men's Christian Association.
Local committees of the Ladies' Association have been
formed very extensively throughout the colony. They
communicate with their President, a lady residing at
Melbourne ; and all communications with Mr. Duncan's
department take place, we understand, through her.* On
a child being licensed (after a month's trial) to service,
the secretary of the committee in the locality to which it
is sent is informed of its presence, and she appoints a
visitor from among the members of her committee. It is
the duty of the visitor to assure herself by personal obser-
vation that the conditions imposed upon the employer are
fulfilled. If any circumstance arise — absconding, ill-
treatment, serious illness, or death — requiring the inter-
vention of the department, the visitor must immediately
report it, and the fact will reach the authorities through
the President ; but if nothing unusual occurs, she reports
periodically upon her charge ; her reports are tabulated
with those of other visitors by the local secretary, and
transmitted to the President, who half-yearly sends
all she has received from the local committees to Mr.
Duncan.

Besides supervision by these organisations, the depart-

* The President of the Association at the time of oxir stay in Melbourne,
\vas absent from the colony, and we had not the advantage of learning the
details of the working of the society from herself; but we believe our
description is correct. We have thought it desirable to give porticulars, as
they may suggest means for creating a similar organisation at home, where
it would be as valuable as patronage societies for the same purpose are
abroad.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 353

ment invites it from the clergyman of the denomination
to which the child belongs, residing in the neighbourhood
to which it is sent ; and the clergyman and the members
of the said societies are requested not to discontinue their
visits when the term of licence expires, because — as it is
remarked upon the printed form supplied to them — " it
may sometimes occur that advice and remonstrance, at the
somewhat critical period when these children are freed
from the control of the department, may prevent them
from going astray."

The system thus carefully provided for the surveillance
of the children does not indeed secure it to all, some of
them dwelling in places too remote to be visited; for
information concerning these Mr. Duncan has to rely
upon the police.

2 A

354 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

CHAPTER XXI.

Prisons of Victoria — Female Convicts — Establishment for Male Convicts
at Pentridge — View from Tower — Crof'ton System — Coburg Boys'
Reformatory — Melbourne Gaol — Industrial School.

IN the colony of Victoria there are ten ordinary gaols—
one at Melbourne and the rest in the provinces — and three
penal institutions, namely, Pentridge gaol, two hulks, and
a house a few miles from Melbourne differing little from
an ordinary dwelling ; all these latter, however, consti-
tute but one penal establishment, in which male convicts
alone are received. Female prisoners under sentence to
penal servitude fulfil it in Melbourne gaol, with the
advantage of so much of the enlightened system applied
to the men as the circumstances of that over-crowded
prison will permit.

December ]8th. Mr. Duncan took us to Pentridge to see
the gaol and also the Boys' reformatory there. Although
five or six miles from town it may be considered a suburb
of Melbourne, as we did not entirely escape from houses
the whole way. Arrived at the prison we mounted the
watch-tower, whence we could at a glance see the ground-
plan of the gaol. Besides the view of the prison imme-
diately beneath us, we obtained from our elevated position
an excellent one of the country around. We beheld an
undulating plain, perhaps thirty miles across, almost
encircled by mountains. Sometimes a solitary height,
bold inform, rises far above its neighbours — of such Mount
Macedon, at the termination of the Dividing Range, forms
a striking example — but low sweeping lines mostly mark
their summits. Among them are the Plenty Ranges
whence the metropolis obtains an abundant supply of water ;

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 355

and the Dandinong Hills, amidst which there is some fine
scenery. Their nearest point may be reached in a long
day's excursion from Melbourne ; but to enjoy their
beauty thoroughly two or three days are needed, and com-
fortable country inns along the route make such an expe-
dition easy. Fern Tree Gully is a lovely spot where the
fern-trees grow thirty feet high, and the graceful lyre-bird
may still be sometimes seen. This ravine forms part of a
State Forest-reserve, where the public are prohibited from
cutting the trees or plants, and a ranger lives in a 'cottage
in the glen to prevent the regulation being violated.

The mountains under the sunless sky of to-day were of
a uniform indigo colour. The intervening landscape burnt
with summer heat, very much resembled a vast stubble-
field, in the midst of which rose the loftier buildings of
Melbourne, her suburbs extending for many miles around
her.

Looking now within the gaol enclosure we saw a large
inner yard surrounded by a wall, on which are look-outs,
each occupied by a sentry carrying a loaded gun. In this
yard are several buildings separated from each other by
a considerable space. They include Mr. Duncan's resi-
dence, the officers' quarters, an infirmary, a day-yard with
sheds for men who are in feeble health but not ill enough
to be invalided, and three blocks, named respectively
A, B, and C.

Between this yard and the outer wall of the prison
are seventeen acres of land which are cultivated by
prisoners, and produce all the vegetables, except potatoes,
they consume, and also hay for the cows and horses of the
establishment.

In the blocks A, B, and C, called "divisions," the
prisoners are lodged in lour stages of their discipline,
both the third and fourth being passed in division C. D is
" intermediate " and, like C, includes two stages — the fifth
and sixth. The men who have reached the fifth stage
occupy the hulks, which are moored off Williamstown four
miles froai Melbourne ; and those in the sixth are lodged
in the house we have mentioned (which is not strictly a

2A 2

356 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

prison), also at Williamstown. In both the latter stages
they are employed on public works ; but prisoners are not
eligible for the fifth and sixth whose sentences do not
exceed twelve months — they have not time to work up to
them — nor are those who have been re-convicted.

At the termination of his sentence the prisoner is dis-
charged in whatever stage he may be, and whether he
has earned his appointed number of marks or not — the
substitution of a labour-punishment for a time-punish-
ment not having yet been adopted in Victoria any more
than elsewhere. We are still, all of us, content to turn
offenders loose upon the community because a certain date
has arrived, and not because they have "ceased to do
evil, and learned to do well." If physicians treated their
hospital patients on the corresponding principle, how great
would be the outcry at their want of sense and of
humanity !

A complete and carefully administered method of
registering industry and general conduct by the acquisi-
tion of marks is in full operation in the penal establish-
ment of Victoria; the number earned regulating the
prisoner's advance to a higher stage, accompanied by
increased privileges, and if sufficient in amount, obtaining
eventually the remission of a certain portion of the
sentence.

Thus it will be seen that the convict system of Victoria
has been closely modelled on that of Sir Walter Crofton,
arid it is needless therefore to describe it in detail. The
adoption of his plan had been recommended by the Royal
Commission, with the exception, however, of the very
principle which gives vitality to the whole, — that, namely,
of vesting in the prisoner himself the power of shortening
(within due limits) the term of his confinement. It would
appear that heretofore too free a use of remission largely
prevailed, the evil effect of which seems to have blinded
the Commissioners to the value of that principle which,
endorsed by the approval of the greatest authorities
on penal discipline, constitutes a vital element of the
Crofton system. Mr. Duncan, in the first Report issued

WE A T WE SAW IN A US TRALIA. 357

by him after his appointment in 1870, points out the
difference in its application, and urges that remission
should within strict limits still be attainable.* Happily
his view has prevailed.

Descending from the tower, we visited each department
we had seen from above. Cleanliness and order reign
throughout ; and a very agreeable feature of the gaol is
the pleasant sitting-room for the warders, containing a
good library for their special use. The apartment is
further adorned by a beautiful piece of sculpture executed
by a former prisoner.

The bearing of the officers towards the prisoners is
kindly, while the manner of the prisoners is respectful
without servility. Formerly the prisoners at Pentridge
were regarded as dangerous, and only a few years ago a
chaplain was murdered while ministering to one in his
cell. Here, as at Darlinghurst, the change in this respect
wrought by humane and reasonable treatment is very
striking. The general aspect of the men is now favourable,
and, except for the Government brand (two letters and a
broad arrow on their clothes), might pass for ordinary
workmen. Their attire consists of a coloured shirt, white
moleskin trousers, grey cloth jacket, neckerchief, cabbage-
tree hat, and a long loose jacket of coarse white flannel
for wet weather.

The hours of labour are from seven to five, exclusive of
dinner and school. The latter, attended during the heat
of the day, is discontinued, as regards men employed in
hard labour, for the three winter months. There is a large
library for the use of the prisoners, including the works of
Dickens, Thackeray, Scott, Byron, &c., and theological
books suited to lioman Catholics and Protestants selected
by their respective chaplains. Among the prisoners, there
are always some Chinese, but the library contains no
Chinese books; the prison rules are, however, translated
into their language.

* 'Penal Establishments: Report of the Inspector-General for 1371.'
Government Printer, Melbourne.

358 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

There are three chaplains (one is, we believe, Piesby-
terian), but we were sorry to find there is no chapel or
building of any kind appropriated solely to religious
worship. One end of the dining-hall is shut off when
required for the purpose. It is furnished with a harmonium,
and a choir has been formed among the men.

The infirmary wards are airy and tolerably cheerful.
Connected with them is a large verandah for the use of
the patients, commanding a fine view. Absence from
work entails loss of labour-marks (though not those for
good conduct), and there is very little malingering. The
ordinary diet of the prisoners includes meat daily, bread,
vegetables, and hominy eaten with brown sugar. This is
so brown that at first sight we supposed it to be tobacco.
We were told it is called " ration* sugar," and is of the
same quality as that given to station servants. In the
advanced stages of their detention the men's diet improves.
Tea is supplied to them and also tobacco.

The cells, 600 in number, and never occupied by more
than one prisoner each, are lighted till bed-time, and
are provided with means for summoning a warder.
Pulling wool, plaiting straw, shoe-making, and clothes-
mending are the employment of their occupants, but no
work is given them during the first month of imprison-
ment. The two punishment-cells can be made perfectly
dark, but they are rarely used, as detention in ordinary
cells on bread and water diet, with loss of marks, is usually
found a sufficient punishment for gaol offences. The
sentries in the look-outs, however, have orders to fire on
prisoners attempting to escape ; once beyond the prison
walls recapture is difficult, PO that strong preventive
measures have to be used. Nine penal servitude men
absconded during 1872 (two while in the intermediate
stage), of whom, however, seven were recaptured.

Prisoners have the use of a slate, and three books at a
time, one religious, one educational, and one for recreation.
Mr. Duncan aims at driving away depraved thoughts and

Usually in the colonies pronounced " rasli'un."

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 359

evil designs by substituting wholesome mental food, but
the recreation of literature and study is not allowed to
interfere with work. Thus we saw books and slate piled
in a neat little heap outside the cell-doors, during the
working hours of prisoners who were still in the stage of
separate confinement.

The trades' teachers are not prison officers, and do not
live within the gaol. Supervision by teachers or warders
is not absolutely continuous ; but there are certain points
of observation whence the prisoners can be seen without
their knowing it, so that they are ignorant, when the
officers are absent, whether they are being watched or
not. There are workshops for hatters, carpenters, tailors,
shoemakers, matmakers, tinsmiths, ironfounders, wool-
combers, and weavers. " All work," Mr. Duncan is of
opinion, " provided for prisoners should be not only useful,
but of a kind the utility of which is apparent. Mere
purposeless labour, and all expedients contrived to secure
an expenditure of physical energy, without any corre-
sponding results, are I think fatal to reform, and too often
engender a spirit of sullen discontent."* He has there-
fore provided ample choice of useful and remunerative
employment, and the men become interested and in-
dustrious. 6644?., in 1872, were paid into the Government
Treasury, earned in cash by the men undergoing penal
servitude, including those at Williamstown ; while the
total value of their labour was estimated at 19,2 12/., the
average number of prisoners being 704. Their total cost
was ;-50,m'Z.

The Coburg Reformatory for boys, in which Mr. Duncan
and the ladies of his family take great personal interest,
contains over a hundred, varying in age from eight to
upwards of sixteen. The school was opened on the 80th
of January, 1873, when the inmates were removed hither
from the ' Sir Harry Smith ' Ship-reformatory, the use of
which was then discontinued. The * Nelson ' Industrial
School-ship is still in operation, containing 350 boys,

* 'Penal Establishments Report for 1S71.'

360 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTBALIA.

but for want of time we did not visit it. The gross cost
of each boy at Coburg for the past year has been between
31Z. and 32£, less about 61. for the value of his labour.

The building the lads occupy was formerly a portion of
the gaol, but great care has been taken to prevent any
communication between the respective inmates, and it has
been altered to make it as cheerful and unprison-like as
circumstances permit. The dormitories (where an officer
is on duty and a little gas burns throughout the night)
are large and airy, and ground-glass panes in the windows
conceal the strong bars outside, which cannot be removed
without danger to the edifice.

There is no band yet, but some thirty lads were put
through their drill for us to see. They marched well, and
looked bright and happy. The appearance of others at
work in the tailoring and shoemaking shops was satis-
factory. On the land attached to the reformatory several
were busily employed, and seemed thoroughly interested
in their occupation. Already fine vegetable crops are
growing on what, till the boys came, was waste ground,
rich only in huge stones. School is attended on the half-
time plan, but we arrived too late to see the afternoon
scholars at their lessons.

To be placed out on licence is made the chief reward
for good conduct ; but this cannot be done until the lad
is thirteen, and has fulfilled half his sentence, nor even
then with safety, we should think, unless the sentence be
usually longer than the inspector's report shows it some-
times is. " Very little good," he says, " can be done with
those young persons who are sentenced to the reformatory
for one year only. Under a two years' committal they
can, if well behaved, be allowed out to service, under
supervision, when they have completed twelve months of
their term ; whereas, if committed for twelve months
only, they return at the end of that time to their old
companions and their former temptations."*

The next day (December 19th) we visited Melbourne

* ' Report on Reformatory and Industrial Schools for 1873.' Government
Printer, Melbourne.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 361

gaol, which stands in the outskirts of the city. Here are
congregated all the women sentenced to penal servitude
in the whole colony; lads too old for a reformatory; several
little children of female prisoners ; men and women tried
at Melbourne and sentenced for less than two years;
prisoners awaiting trial, under remand, or in want of bail ;
and also insane, imbecile, and destitute persons, committed
that they may be taken care of, and not yet transferred to the
proper asylums, or for whom room therein cannot be found.
The latter class ought never to be subjected to the misery
and degradation of being brought within prison walls at
all, and for the rest ample space for complete classification
is of course of the first importance. Yet all these persons
(more than 500 on the day of our visit) were assembled in
a building with separate sleeping cells for only 212, the
other inmates (chiefly women) being lodged frequently
three in a cell, and overcrowded in the day-wards also.
Thus we saw destitute and imbecile women in the same
yards with those under punishment ; and penal servitude
women (employed in sewing with the needle or with the
machine), mixed up with those sentenced for a month.
These occupied a large airy apartment, originally intended
for a chapel.

The uniform is not degrading in appearance, and the
absence of the hideous caps female prisoners at home are
usually required to wear is very pleasing. Nor is their
hair cut short. It is very plainly but neatly dressed, the
mode of its arrangement being strictly defined in the gaol
regulations.

The impossibility of duly classifying the prisoners
prevents the mark system, in operation at Pentridge and
vVilliamstown, being fully employed with the penal servi-
tude women ; nominally, however, and to a limited extent
practically, they are under its regulations, but there is no
intermediate prison for them. The money gratuities they
can earn are fixed at half the amount of those obtainable
by the men on hard labour.

Some of the women do the washing for the whole prison,
and the best seemed to have been made of the limited

362 WHAT WE SAW JN AUSTRALIA.

space available for a laundry. The cooking is done
entirely by men, who also bring the women's food into
their wards. We saw their supper of Indian-meal porridge
carried in on large trays, which their bearers set upon the
ground just within the door of the women's corridor. The
hard labour men are employed in separate yards at stone-
breaking ; most of them were working well. The youths
are also kept away from the rest. For these latter
prisoners only is there any school instruction. About ten
of them in one of the yards were drawn up in line that we
might speak to them. Poor lads ! they looked very much
like their class in England.

In the infirmary we found a little fellow in bed by
himself who had been committed to prison simply
because he had no one to take care of him, his father
having gone up the country. Apparently there was not
much illness in the case, but he had been crying in his
cell, and seemed to have been brought to the infirmary by
way of comforting him. Probably he would soon be
transferred to a school, or be boarded-out. Two lads were
in a cage-like compartment in one of the yards, and we
spoke to them through the bars. They had been taken
up for sleeping out-of-doors, and in dirt and rags would
have equalled any street Arab at home. In a similar
compartment we saw a finely-grown lad in sailor-dress,
who would have been well-looking but for the hard
expression on his handsome features, just convicted of the
heinous offence of trying to set his ship on fire. We
asked him where he came from, and learnt he had been a
pauper orphan, and came from the ' Goliath.' He had
been sentenced for two years to Coburg reformatory, and
there he may yet, we will hope, retrieve himself.

The gaol is very clean, and the infirmary arrangements
are good. Indeed, throughout the building the utmost
advantage has been taken of the wholly inadequate accom-
modation. Mr. Duncan is of course fully aware of its de-
ficiencies. In his last prison report, dated May 1874, he
again dwells upon the importance of so remedying them
as to " make that provision for the prisoners which a care

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. • 363

for their sanitary and moral welfare so urgently demands."
The insufficiency of the accommodation in Melbourne
Gaol, and its unfitness for carrying into effect a wise
system of prison discipline was urged in the report of the
Royal Commission, and it is melancholy to find most of
the evils there enumerated undiminished.

In the afternoon we visited the St. Kilda Road Industrial
School for boys, girls, and infants, to which the sickly
children who come under the care of the State are generally
sent. The buildings were described in the report of the
Royal Commission as " in all respects unsuitable for the
purpose;" they "form a portion of the military barrack,
and the local military force occupies the other portion.
Such a situation for a school of several hundred girls is so
obviously unsuitable that it needs not to be enlarged upon.
... It lies on the edge of a swamp, and has an exceed-
ingly cheerless aspect,"* and so indeed it impressed us, in
spite of our seeing it this sunny summer afternoon.

The elder boys are separated from the other inmates, and
work in the Botanical Gardens and Government parks.
Girls who have been at service and are returned to the
school are also kept apart. They are employed in wash-
ing, and elder girls freshly committed are placed with
them. The babies and very little children are in wards
by themselves, and some of these were indeed a piteous
sight. Among several who were in the hospital-ward
two deserted infants, a few weeks old, were sinking under
disease, and want of their proper food. Everything
appeared to be done for them that the nature of the
institution permitted, but each needed individual watch-
ing and cherishing.t A tiny baby dying by itself in the
corner of a large ward, not crying because too feeble to
emit a sound, but gasping out its last breath as it lies upon
its cot when it should be in a mother's arms, is a ghastly
spectacle which once beheld can never be forgotten !

The younger girls were at play, and though they did

* Report (No. 3), p. 6.

t Wet-nurses are obtained for young infants when possible, but at
present there is a deficiency.

364 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

not look robust they gave us the impression of being
kindly and wisely cared for by their matron. They do
the housework under the direction of servants.

All the children attend worship on Sundays outside the
school. They and the officers alike belong to different
creeds, and the officers take each their little flock to
their own church. The number in the school to-day is
about three hundred. It has been greatly diminished
within the present year by boarding-out, and probably
will be still further decreased ; and as it is proposed to
build a suitable school in the Royal Park for such of the
permanent children as cannot be placed in cottage homes,
this will, we understand, become merely a reception-house.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 365

CHAPTEK XXII.

Melbourne Home for Servants — Model Lodging-house — Benevolent
Asylum — Boarding-out — St. Kilda— Boys' Industrial School at Sun-
bury — Ladies' Benevolent Society.

THERE are so many institutions we desire to see, and the
time wo can appropriate to Melbourne is comparatively so
short, that we are obliged occasionally to economise it by
dividing; each, under the kindly guidance of residents
interested in these institutions, going her separate way.

Thus on December 20th, E was taken to see the

" Governesses Institute and Melbourne Home for Ser-
vants," and the Model Lodging-house. The Home, which
is also a Eegistry Office, was established in 1864. It
receives governesses, sempstresses, and domestic servants,
and will accommodate thirty inmates. A gentlemen's
committee gives assistance when needed, but a committee
of ladies are practically the managers, one or more of
whom are daily present. The house, built by subscrip-
tion supplemented by a Government grant, is very
conveniently arranged, and looks extremely comfortable.
The institution is now self-supporting. The charges per
week for board and lodging are, for a governess I/., or
17s. if she share her bedroom with another ; for sempstresses
13s. ; and for servants 12s. ; all to be paid in advance,
unless, in the discretion of the committee, an applicant be
permitted instead to sign an undertaking to pay as soon
as she is able. Of the servants comparatively few remain
more than a very short time. The demand for them is so
great that a good servant need never be out of place.

There exists in Melbourne (as also in Sydney) a
" Society for the Promotion of Morality," which is con-

366 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

stantly on the watch for opportunities to initiate useful
enterprises, apparently relinquishing each when fairly
launched to the management of persons specially in-
terested in the undertaking, reserving its own strength to
set fresh schemes afloat. In this way it has established
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and
the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society ; it promoted the
passing of a Bill through Parliament for the suppression
of gambling-houses, and originated a Reading-room and
Club for factory boys. Some of its members are connected
with the Servants' Home, and every emigrant ship that
arrives, bringing young women, is met by a representative
of the society, who informs them of the respectable
lodgings there provided ; and gives each a short printed
letter, containing most useful and kindly advice, together
with the addresses of persons to whom they are urged to
apply in case of trouble or difficulty.

In visits paid by the members of the society in perform-
ance of their self-imposed and most benevolent duties to
the low lodging-houses of the city, the wretched haunts to
which working-men were compelled, for want of better, to
betake themselves came under their notice, and to pro-
vide accommodation which should be both morally and
physically wholesome, they formed a Company for the
erection of a Model Lodging-house to receive 200 men.
It was opened in September last, and forms a large and
handsome block of buildings in the business part of
Melbourne, the ground upon which it stands having been
a gift from Government. The general arrangements are
good, and the beds look very comfortable ; they are in
large dormitories which have baths and lavatories at-
tached. The charge is Gd. or 9d. a night, varying
with the part of the building occupied ; and the under-
taking promises to be a pecuniary success. During last
month more than 50Z. were taken beyond the working
expenses, and it is expected the shares will pay eight per
cent.

R was shown the Benevolent Asylum, the object of

which, set forth in its bye-laws, is '•' to relieve the aged,

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 367

infirm, disabled, or destitute, of all creeds, and nations,
and to administer to them the comforts of religion."* It
supplies the place of a workhouse with us, but is under
voluntary management, and is supported by subscriptions,
largely supplemented by a State grant. In 1872, the
latter amounted to 8500Z., while the total income was
a little over 12,OOOZ. On a list of "Life Governors"
there are the names of several ladies, but the acting
committee consists entirely of gentlemen. The report
informs us that " the institution has been full throughout
the year, and numerous necessitous cases have had to be
rejected, especially amongst the female applicants." It is
to be hoped tbat they obtained help from other charities ;
but it will be remembered that in Melbourne gaol yester-
day we found women committed to it simply because they
were destitute. We can but conclude that the accommo-
dation, which the arrangements of the building render
available for male inmates only, must be much more
extensive than that appropriated to the other sex, as,
notwithstanding the refusal of admission to women greatly
needing assistance, we learn from the report for the year
1873 that the number of female inmates was less than half
that of the men.

All are so far aged and infirm as to be, or to be be-
lieved to be, incapable of earning their living. * Many
are bedridden, and the deaths in ]872 amounted to
83, upon an average population of 626. f Still those
who are able are expected to work five hours a day,
obtaining for their labour a small remuneration. Pay-
ment for work by the piece has been lately introduced,
and much more is accomplished now than formerly. The
inmates make their clothes, including boots and shoes,
and pick oakum ; but the nursing and service of the house
is done entirely by paid servants, whom R saw

* ' Twenty-third Annual Report of the Benevolent Asylum,' Melbourne,
1873.

t This average i-> approximate only, being obtained by adding tbe numbers
present on January 1st, 1872, and January 1st, 1873, and halving the total.

368 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

waiting on the men at dinner. Otherwise this was served
much as in an English workhouse, except that the food
was more abundant.

The building struck K • as very large ; but it con-
tains no day-room except the dining-hall, and the wards
are crowded, many of the invalids sitting up by their
bedsides — provided, however, with comfortable chairs. A
few small rooms are allotted to married couples. In one

of the corridors E, met a lively old lady, who claimed

to be ninety-six years of age. She could read without
spectacles, and was conscious of no diminution in her
power of hearing. Her son had sent for her from England,
and she boasted that she had a grandson a minister of
religion. Why she was dependent on public charity
E could not learn.

The urgent recommendation by the Koyal Commis-
sioners, in their Report on Industrial and Reformatory
Schools, to substitute, as far as possible, boarding-out for
these institutions, has, though issued only in 1872, been
so promptly and extensively acted upon, that already
600 children are placed out with foster-parents. Acting
upon the suggestion of the Commission, the Victorian
Government invited the co-operation of the clergy, and
that also of ladies. " To the ladies of Victoria," says Mr.
Duncan, under whose department the administration of.
the system falls, "the Government is much indebted for
the willing assistance rendered in finding suitable homes
for so many children. As the result of the request for
co-operation in this work, fifty-four committees were in a
short time formed in various parts of the colony ; and by
all these ladies' committees, as soon as a few official diffi-
culties had been got rid of, willing and painstaking
assistance has been afforded."* After expressing his
satisfaction in this successful initiation of the system, and
mentioning a curious result of its adoption, with which we
are familiar at home — the application, namely, of parents

* ' Report of the Inspector of Industrial and Reformatory Schools in
Victoria for the year 1873.' Issued July 1874.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 369

for their children on their being transferred to homes
from the schools — he points out difficulties yet to be
guarded against, as well as those which already had arisen.
The latter were consequent chiefly upon the rapidity with
which so large a number of children had been put out,
but were also partly owing to the fact that some were too
old to fall into their places in the families where they
had been received.* He recommends the observance of
rules similar to those with which our Local Government
Board accompanied its Boaiding-out Order of 1870;
indeed the method adopted in Victoria is already in some
degree identical with that established by the Order. The
Ladies Committees (unlike those of the Ladies Associa-
tion, already described, for visiting children licensed from
schools) are not parts of one large society, but are inde-
pendent of each other, and communicate, through their
secretaries, directly with the department. Each receives
thence the money for the maintenance of the children
under its care, and pays it periodically to the foster-
parents. The amount varies with the age of the child,
but averages for all rather more than 5s. a-week. In
estimating the cost of the syt-tem, however, the value of
the child's schooling should be added, calculated in the
Industrial Schools at 1Z. 2s. 3d. per annum. There is
also some extra expense at present imposed upon the
department, and doubtless very much additional labour,
by the correspondence which has to be carried on with
the boarding-out committees scattered over the colony ;
they must, however, eventually be set off against the
staff expenses of the schools, which will, of course, be
greatly diminished if boarding-out prevails.

The committees consist usually of about twelve members,
and each has its own president and secretary. On various
occasions we have met with ladies thus engaged in car-
rying the system into effect. It is gratifying to learn
that, so far as their experience enables them to judge, they

* Two-thirds were above seven years old, considerably more than a hun-
dred were upwards of ten, and several had been put out even afttr they
were twelve.

2 B

370 -WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

believe it to be perfectly applicable to the circumstances
of their country ; and to find that it is exciting, alike in
the ladies who supervise, and in the foster-parents who
receive the children, the same warm interest in their
welfare which is awakened in those practically concerned
in conducting boarding-out at home.

We visited this afternoon a member of a committee at
St. Kilda, who kindly gave us much information con-
cerning the working of the plan. She also took us to
see one of the houses under her surveillance. The
foster-parents, who had no children of their own, had re-
ceived a family of four, all delicate, and sent to them for
that reason, from the St. Kilda Koad Industrial School
about two months ago. They were still sickly in appear-
ance, but looked much better, we were told, than when
they first came. The cottage was a good one, and the
condition of the children satisfactory.

St. Kilda, four miles from Melbourne, with which it is
connected by railway, is a handsome and thriving watering-
place. A fine esplanade extends far along the beach, from
which lead wide streets, intersected by others running
parallel with the sea. It contains a few remarkably hand-
some mansions, long rows of comfortable villas with
gardens, tolerable shops, several churches, a townhall,
some good hotels, and a large bathing establishment, the
portion of the beach reserved for bathers being duly fenced
to prevent the entrance of sharks, who, it is said, con-
gregate outside, and look with hungry eye at the prey
they cannot reach !

December 22nd. We went with Mr. Duncan, by railway,
to Sunbury, twenty-four miles from Melbourne, to see a
large Industrial School for boys, and a Reformatory for
girls. Our route lay across the parched plain until we
approached our destination, which is at the edge of the
hilly country. The schools are placed upon a broad round
eminence, whence there is a fine view over a prettily
wooded and broken foreground, in which is the estate of
Mr. Francis, the present Prime Minister, who is a large
wine-grower ; while beyond rise range after range of low

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTPA II A. 371

mountains, of a rich soft blue almost equalling, this
fine summer day, that of the Blue Mountains themselves.
The situation of the school has been complained of as
bleak and remote, ill- provided with fuel, and having its
water-supply at the bottom of the hill, whence it has to be
pumped to the top.* The soil, indeed, looks rocky and
unproductive ; and the distance from Melbourne doubtless
deprives the institutions of the benefit of voluntary super-
vision and assistance. But it is an advantage for the
children to be thus beyond the reach of evil relatives and
companions, while the air seemed to us most agreeably
invigorating. The moral aspect of the boys the Com-
missioners reported upon very unfavourably, attributing
it to the want of healthful employment and suitable re-
creation. Great changes for the better have evidently
been effected since their Report drew attention to the
state of the school — probably in consequence of it. In
many respects, indeed, this establishment appeared to us
worthy of comparison with Mettray. The same division
into groups prevails (here there are about fifty boys in
each), occupying distinct dwellings, unenclosed by any
walls. The houses are one-storeyed, and have broad
verandahs, where are placed the baths and lavatories.
They consist, besides, of a large airy dormitory, a day-
room, and an apartment for an officer and his wife, some-
times placed between the former, but sometimes at one
end of the building, — a less convenient arrangement for
supervision.

The boys were being drilled before dispersing to school
or work after dinner, when we arrived; they looked bright
and happy, and fairly healthy. In the infirmary we found
very few patients, and these were suffering from chronic
disease. A medical officer resides at the school, but he
takes private practice also. The boys range in age from
five to twelve or thirteen. Under eight, they attend school
in the morning and afternoon; after that age they are
half-timers, and these seemed to us to enjoy their lessons

Report (No. 3).

2 B 2

372 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

more than the little ones, and to be admirably taught the
three subjects of reading, writing, and arithmetic, to which,
besides singing, their instruction is limited. Including the
schoolmaster and his assistants, and the trades-teachers,
there are fifty-two officers, while the number of boys is
now 520. In the superintendent, Mr. Scott, the services
of a gentleman have been secured who seems admirably
suited to his post, and calculated, by his enlightened zeal
in the discharge of his duties, to raise still higher the
tone of the institution, already greatly improved. There
is a garden in which the lads work, besides, we understood,
reclaiming the surrounding land ; and they have cows,
pigs, and sheep to take care of. They make their jackets
and trousers, and, under superintendence, cook, bake, and
scrub. The houses were beautifully clean, and those of
the rooms which have been lately built are very cheerful
and commodious.

In employing a husband and wife to take charge of each
group of boys, the excellent example of Eed Hill has been
followed. Each couple presides over its own "family" at
meals, which are taken in a common hall. This latter
arrangement seemed to us a mistake, as every house pos-
sesses an excellent day-room, scarcely used apparently,
except in the evening, when the boys occupy it, and amuse
themselves with reading, games, &c.

From the Industrial School we walked half a quarter of
a mile across a field to a small range of buildings opening
into a little court, the entrance to which is kept locked.
The matron, who takes great interest in her work, is also
female superintendent of the boys' school, and to her the
wards-women (as the officers' wives are called) are respon-
sible. She resides, however, at the Reformatory, and has
two assistants under her — the number of girls being
twenty-five. She seemed to adopt as much as possible the
arrangements of a family, and the manner and appearance
of the girls certainly betokened individual care. When
we arrived a portion of them were at lessons, taught by
one of the masters from the Industrial School, who instructs
them when school-hours there are over. A female officer

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 373

was present, but was not teaching. The arrangement
seemed to us a very extraordinary one, especially as many
of the pupils are almost young women ; but we were assured
that it works well, and that the girls are always docile and
respectful to their instructor. Besides making their clothes,
mending for the boys when there is a press of work, and
doing their own housework and washing, they wash all
the boys' clothes, including their moleskin trousers ; and
as these are always changed once, and sometimes twice,
a-week, the girls must work hard. Their accommodation
is very scanty ; in the same room they eat, sew, and take
their lessons, and there is but one dormitory. As the
building contains no infirmary-ward, a poor girl, far ad-
vanced in consumption, was being nursed in the same
room where her schoolfellows would sleep. We understand
that an additional dormitory will shortly be built on the
fourth side of the court, which, with the two other rooms
and the laundry, kitchen, &c., will then be quite enclosed,
and will afford too little space, we fear, for the exercise
and variety of objects essential for young people.

The annual cost of the two schools is stated together in
the Inspector's Keport, and, after deducting the value of
labour and produce supplied to other Government insti-
tutions, amounts to 201. 11s. Sd. per head. One of the
numerous and very instructive tables which Mr. Duncan
includes in his Keports shows that the cost has fluctuated
greatly during the past seven years. In 1867 it exceeded
'261., while in 1871 it sank to 17Z. 10s. The average num-
bers in the schools have varied considerably, though not to
the same extent. In 1869, and again in 1872, they reached
724 ; for this year they are 613, a considerable diminution
upon any in the preceding six years, to be attributed,
doubtless, in part to children having been boarded-out,
who otherwise would be in the Industrial Schools.* It is
perhaps too soon for the improvements recently introduced
into the management of juvenile offenders to have affected

* ' Report of the Inspector of Industrial and Reformatory Schools for
1873,' pp. 16, 17.

374 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

the numbers in the schools ; but we may hope that this
will also cause a yet further decrease.*

Before we reached Victoria we had heard of the valuable
aid rendered by ladies to the community in important
public work. One of its branches, the administration,
namely, of Out-relief in the colony, we had learnt was
entirely in their hands. Our wish for information on the
subject becoming known to some members of the "Mel-
bourne Ladies' Benevolent Society " (which expends the
sums collected for this purpose), they most kindly facili-
tated our inquiries.

From the Reports f furnished to us we learn that the
society was founded in 1 845. Except for a brief period, when
a Gentlemen's Committee had a short-lived existence, it
has consisted entirely of ladies. Twenty-four form the com-
mittee, and the wife of the Governor of the colony may be
said to be ex officio its patroness. It appears to have been
originally a purely private association, the purpose of which
was " to relieve the wants of the poor, particularly females,
by supplying them with clothes, food, and necessaries;" and,
to prevent imposition, all cases relieved were to be visited
by a member of the committee, unless satisfactorily recom-
mended. Visitation, however, has long been the unbroken
rule in all cases. In apology — if apology be needed —
for the existence of the society, it is remarked, " in" older
and more settled communities the poor have commonly
some relations or friends to aid them in their emergencies ;
but here, crushing misfortune, through sudden bereave-
ment, or sickness, or otherwise, frequently befals those

* In a letter from Mr. Duncan, dated January 27th, 1875, he writes:—
" The schools here are decreasing in number as a consequence of the con-
tinued success of the boarding-out system, which the Ladies' Committees so
materially assist in promoting. Sunbury — the Boys' school you visited
— will cease to exist, as a school, in a few weeks. It is intended to occupy
the buildings and site as a farm for harmless insane persons. The new
school at the Royal Park will be completed in about a year, and I am of
opinion that, in a few years, it will be sufficient for the accommodation of
all the children who will remain within the schools."

t ' Annual Reports of the Melbourne Ladies' Benevolent Society.' Mel-
bourne; Evans Brotheis, 44, Collins Street, West.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 375

who, as recent arrivals, have no such resources, and in
their isolated and helpless state they are in danger of
perishing."

Another perhaps more pitia.ble class among those
relieved are persons, " formerly accustomed to hold a
highly respectable position in society, becoming, through
sickness or misfortune, reduced to the positive want of the
bare necessaries of life." The Association represents many
forms of faith, and gives its help irrespective of creed or
nationality.

In 1860 it was resolved to establish an Industrial Home
for the reception of women and children in whose cases
out-relief seemed inexpedient, a few such being usually
on the Society's books. A house was taken for the pur-
pose in the city, but the institution was subsequently re-
moved to a comparatively rural district, where it is still in
operation. " It has proved especially helpful to mothers
of infants whose state of health required their almost
constant attention, by enabling them to get medical
attendance, good nursing, and change of air ; ' and much
useful service has been gratefully rendered to the institu-
tion by these women. Children are also received to board
at the Home on the application both of labouring men
who have lost their wives, and of kindred societies.

The work of the society was greatly increased in 1869
by tbe committees of the Benevolent Asylum, and of the
Immigrants' Home relinquishing to it all administration
of out-relief, which thus came into its hands for the whole
city. "Confining out-door relief to one society is most
desirable, and prevents imposition," say the ladies in
their twenty-fourth Report. It may justly be added that
it displays gratifying confidence in their mode of ad-
ministering such relief.

The great extent to which the suburbs had attained led
in the same year to the formation of local societies ; the
parent association continuing to administer relief in
Melbourne proper, and still covering all ground not other-
wise occupied. The city is divided into small districts,
each of which a member of the committee is appointed to

376 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

visit. A map correspondingly divided, with each district
numbered, and the name of its visiting lady entered on
the margin, forms one of the published documents of the
society. The system pursued resembles that in operation
at Elberfield ; there, however, men alone discharge this
charitable duty, the reason alleged being, we have
heard, that women are too weak to resist importunity
from unworthy applicants. Another among the points of
difference is the important one, that whereas at Elberfield
a visitor is permitted to undertake only four cases'
(i. e. families) in order to secure thoroughness of investiga-
tion into their circumstances, the increase of population at
Melbourne now throws the care of about forty families upon
each member of the committee, and thus acquaintance with
the condition of the applicants must be less complete.

Belief is given chiefly in kind ; but sometimes rent is
paid, or tools are redeemed from pawn, or a sewing-
machine, or other means of employment may be supplied.
When money is spent it is usually regarded as a gift, not
as a loan.

The committee has met " for despatch of business "
every alternate Tuesday since the foundation of the
society twenty-seven years ago. We were permitted to
be present at the meeting of December 23rd, when about
twenty members attended. A printed list setting forth
the routine of topics for consideration is supplied to each
lady, and strictly adhered to. Thus the proceedings are
very orderly, and the subjects that successively arise are
rapidly disposed of.

" Cases " stand last upon this list. Each member's report
of families visited and grants made during the past fort-
night, entered upon a form with which she has been sup-
plied at the previous meeting, is read aloud. The grants
average rather under Is. per head per week. If there be a
new case, its circumstances are briefly explained ; the old
ones are simply enumerated. If a difficulty has occurred it
is submitted to the meeting. The sexes of those relieved
must be specified in the report, this information being
needed for a return furnished yearly to the Kegistrar-

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 377

General. Each report as it is read is handed to the
secretary of the society who prepares from all a short
statement of the relief given during the past fortnight,
which is published in the ' Argus ' and the ' Age,' the
leading daily papers of Melbourne. The only case which
came before the committee in detail to-day was contained
in a letter from a widow in service who had two children
to support, her earnings being 12s. a week while their
board cost 12s. 6d. She asked the committee to advise
her how to meet this difficulty, and to help her with
clothing. Alter a very short deliberation a grant was
made. We were surprised the case was not to be investi-
gated, until it was explained to us that the woman was
well-known to the committee, and could be trusted not to
abuse its aid. A " Belief Card " is used when help in kind
is given (consisting usually of bread and groceries, but
sometimes including meat), which when the required
entries by the visiting lady and the tradesman who
supplies the goods have been made, constitutes his
authority for supplying them and his bill against the
society. It is handed to the treasurer at the ensuing
meeting, who returns the lady a cheque for the amount.
She discharges the bill before the next meeting, and then
gives the treasurer the receipt.

The funds this society administers have greatly increased
of late years. Originally we believe they were derived
from private resources alone. In the tenth Report, how-
ever (the earliest in our possession), we find " unclaimed
poundage fees from Government" contributing 500?. to
a total of 1111?. In the year 1860 this amount is ex-
ceeded by only a few pounds, the total including a large
sum, the proceeds of a lecture by the Rev. Thomas
Binney (then visiting the colony) delivered at the Mel-
bourne Young Men's Institute.

Six years later the whole annual income is slightly over
1400?., but Government aid had meanwhile lapsed. To
regain this urgent efforts seem to have been made, and
with success, but only to the extent of 500?. By 1869,
however, we find nearly 3000?. derived from this source

378 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

alone, the total income exceeding 5300Z. ; and in 1872
nearly 4000?. of the public money was administered by
this society ; similar associations elsewhere also receiving
grants.

One of the conditions to any society or institution
receiving State aid in Victoria is that its secretary
shall periodically supply the Treasury with a full state-
ment of its accounts, verified by declaration before a
Justice of the Peace. Another is that a sum equal to
one-third of the grant desired shall be proved to have been
raised by private subscriptions. These conditions being
fulfilled, application may be made for a share of the sum
of 120,000?., annually voted by Parliament to be divided
among the charities of the colony. In the debate in
the Lower House on the vote for 1873, it appeared that
the grant to the Melbourne Ladies' Benevolent Society
would be reduced 25 per cent, in consideration of their
having a large balance remaining from the previous year
— a circumstance attributed by one of the speakers to the
economy with which their funds are administered.

WUA T WE SA W IN A USTEALIA. 379

CHAPTER XXIII.

Public Library — Museum — Art Galleries — Mothers' Meeting — Back-
slums — Industrial Home — Christmas Day — Dust-Storm — Boxing
Day — Cricket Match — Out-relief — Immigrants' Home.

DECEMBER 23ED. In the afternoon we visited the Public
Library, Museum, and Art Galleries, and had the advan-
tage of being taken over the whole of the remarkably
handsome and commodious building they occupy in Swan-
ston Street by one of the gentlemen holding an appoint-
ment in the institution.

The foundation-stone was laid in 1854, and the library
was opened to the public two years later. The edifice,
which stands back from the road in pleasure-grounds,
though already very large, is not yet completed. When
finished, it will be a really magnificent building. The
ground-floor is occupied by galleries for sculpture and
painting. Copies of Raphael's cartoons, of the Elgin
marbles, and many others of the art treasures of the world
have been obtained ; and there are several modern paintings
of high character, mingled, it must be admitted, with very
inferior examples. Government makes an annual grant,
we understand, of 1000Z. for the purchase of pictures and
statues, 2000?. for books, and 1000Z. for additions to the
general museum.

The pictures which formed the nucleus of the collection
were selected by Sir Charles Eastlake, and those now
purchased in Europe are, we believe, chosen by Mr.
iluskin. Australian scenery has found most successful
interpreters in Chevalier and Buvelot, whose pictures
greatly adorn the gallery. The former has been induced
to return to Europe ; but M. Buvelot remains, and in his
studio, as well as in the museum, we saw landscapes in the

380 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

interior, which made us long to visit the lovely scenes
portrayed. The views among the Australian Alps recalled
the chesnut-clad slopes on the Italian side of their European
namesakes.

The galleries are rendered available as Art-schools, the
students having admission in the early part of the day,
before the doors are thrown open to the public.

In the rear of the Art-galleries, with which it com-
municates, is the extensive range of building erected for
the Exhibition of 1866, substantially constructed with a
view to its future incorporation with the main edifice, when
this needs enlargement ; meanwhile it affords a spacious
and admirably lighted location for the Industrial and Tech-
nological Museum. We examined with great interest the
abundant collection of objects connected with goldmining,
— quartz, alluvial soil, specimens of the pure metal, fac-
similes of remarkable nuggets (very like Brobdingnagian
potatoes in form), and models of various and most ingenious
implements for quartz-crushing and earth-washing. One
of the attendants, who had himself been a digger, showed
us how several of these are used. The gold-bearing quartz
is white, with streaks of a grey or olive hue, and the gold
is usually found in these streaks ; the alluvial soil, whence
the precious metal is obtained by washing, looks much
like rottenstone. In connection with the Technological
department courses of scientific lectures are delivered.
There is, too, a class for female students in telegraphy,
whom we saw in busy manipulation.

The Library is on the first-floor, and is entered by a
turnstile recording the number of visitors, which amounts
to an average of between six and seven hundred daily. It
is a most agreeable and commodious apartment, and the
readers (of very different ranks) we found in it seemed
thoroughly to enjoy the advantages it affords. There are
upwards of 70,000 volumes, including a good general
library ; a large collection of local and European Parlia-
mentary documents ; a gift from the Queen of the works of
the Prince Consort, accompanied by an autograph letter
from herself, placed in a glass-case in the centre of the

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 381

reading-room ; the writings of Lepsius on Egypt, presented
by the Emperor of Germany; and a fine collection of
French books from the late Emperor of the French.
Geological and topographical maps and anatomical charts
are suspended on the walls, and facsimiles of historical
documents of imperial interest, e. g. Magna Charta and the
Death-warrant of Charles I.; and others of more local
value, among which is a copy of almost the first news-
paper published at Melbourne. It was not printed but
written, and the issue was consequently very small. The
first of these productions was nailed to a tree, and its con-
tents perused in situ. These consisted of little more,
however, than advertisements and public notices, with a
flavouring of accidents and other startling occurrences.

The books are well classified, and conveniently arranged
for readers to help themselves from the shelves, to which
they also restore the volumes after use. The confidence
thus placed in the care and honesty of the public is not
often betrayed, though instances have occurred of gross
abuse. In some cases pages or even sheets have been
stolen, the more remarkable thefts being of sermons,
which have been cut out of the volumes containing them.
The plunderers displayed more taste in their depredations
than benefit derived from their studies, the discourses
abstracted being those of Arnold, Butler, Blair, Heber,
and ' Great Sermons of Great Preachers.' *

All classes are admitted ; for though young persons under
fourteen are nominally excluded, students below that age
are allowed to come, if they do not annoy their com-
panions. The reading-room, 40 feet high and 230 feet
long by 40 wide, has galleries sufficiently broad to be fur-
nished with tables and chairs, forming many almost private
studies for readers who desire to be alone. A portion of
the main room is divided from the rest by curtains, and
reserved for female students. There is a lending branch
of the Library, which circulates books among country

* ' Report of the Trustees for 1872.' Ferres, Government Printer, Mel-
bourne.

382 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

institutes; but the expense of carriage to the borrowers
has limited its operations, and this it has been proposed
Government should defray.*

From the roof of the building we obtained a fine view
of Melbourne. Its great extent, and large, and in many
instances very fine buildings, are amazing when one
recollects that forty years ago its site was untrodden by
the white man.

Knowing our desire to see different phases of social life
here, Canon Becher, the incumbent of St. James, invited
us to attend a tea, to be given this evening to the members
of a Mothers' Meeting belonging to his parish. St. James's,
we may mention, is the Cathedral Church of Melbourne ;
but from its extreme hideousness, both within and without,
and its obviously recent origin, it is most unworthy of a title
full of beautiful and venerable associations. We could not
but marvel that among the many handsome buildings of
the metropolis a Protestant Cathedral has not yet found a
place.

It was still broad daylight when we repaired to the
large school -room in which, decorated with mottoes and
greenery, the company were to assemble. Most hospitable
provision had been made for the guests, but comparatively
few came, and of these several arrived after the meal was
finished — a fact significant of the abundance of food with
them. One woman appeared so far intoxicated that she,
with difficulty, made her way up the room, and did
eventually stumble and fall. In an English meeting of
the kind she would not probably have been allowed to
enter; but much greater liberty must be given here, and
it was thought best to let her remain and keep her as
quiet as possible. With this exception the guests dif-
fered little from the same class at home, except that they
had not the sad pinched look which comes of insufficient
nourishment.

After tea, when prayer was followed by friendly con-
versation among all, and addresses from some of the ladies

' Report of the Trustees for 1872.'

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 383

and gentlemen present, the " larrikins " were active outside,
making their presence known by many a bang at the
door.

Canon Becher, in walking with us to our hotel, made a
circuit to show us Synagogue Lane, which supplies the
Melbourne Police Court with its worst class of offenders.
It was perfectly quiet to-night ; and though a narrow
street here, it is, as compared with corresponding "slums"
at home, so wide and well-looking, that it is difficult to
believe it is the special haunt of the criminal class.
Vice, however, as distinct from crime, is more apparent
in other parts of the city, we were told.

This afternoon we visited the Industrial Home, which
the Ladies' Benevolent Society decided, in 1860, to open.
Its object is "to provide a temporary home for women,
with such young children as may be dependent on them,
during occasional intervals of employment ; to assist in
procuring employment for them, in service or otherwise ;
and to give them temporary occupation, as far as possible,
of a kind remunerative to the institution, until they can
again find employment,"* and is open to all, of whatever
nation or creed. It occupies a house standing in a large
garden at South Yarra, capable of receiving thirty inmates,
or more. The rules apparently are as lax as prudence
permits, and the place has as little as possible the air of
an " institution." The Home acts as a labour-test. If a
woman apply to the parent society for aid, whose cha-
racter makes it doubtful whether out-relief would not be
abused, she is invited to live in the Home, and to bring
her children with her, if she have any. There is a rule
to the effect that married women, widows, or deserted
wives, alone shall be admitted ; but as there is no other
equally suitable refuge for the unmarried who desire to
do well, these also are allowed to come in. Sometimes in-
mates have to be dismissed for insubordinate conduct, some-
times they depart of their own accord, dissatisfied with

* 'Fourteenth Report of the Melbourne Ladies' Benevolent Society.'

384 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTSALIA.

an asylum which requires them to work ; but many
benefit from the kindly shelter, and the opportunity of
obtaining permanent employment it affords. Washing is
taken in large quantities, and all the women are expected
to labour to the extent of their ability. They are not paid
wages, but receive board and lodging for themselves and
their children ; and the latter are sent to day-schools in
the neighbourhood. The garden is valuable as a drying-
ground, and supplies the Home with vegetables ; but a
gardener cultivates it, all the women who are strong
enough being needed in the laundry. There were only
five to-day equal to the labour, but they were working
with a will, and doing their work well; still, with the
Christmas holidays at hand, which obliges the matron to
send the linen home by the middle of the week, she has
for some days had a hired woman to help. There were
four or five feeble-looking inmates occupied in housework,
or taking care of children. Indeed, the poor creatures are
not infrequently admitted when out of health, to promote
their recovery before being recommended to service.
Some stay a long time, if they have two or three children,
who are here an impediment to the mother taking a
place. If, however, she be willing to part with them,
she has little difficulty in getting them committed by a
magistrate as destitute, when they are sent to an Industrial
School, and thence probably boarded-out; the mother,
however, being liable to contribute to their support.

We were extremely pleased with this little institution ;
and it is certainly highly creditable to its managers, that
with a very fluctuating population, some of whom are in-
valids and a large proportion children, the earnings of the
Home last year covered more than half of its expenditure.

December 25th. Signs that Christmas is approach-
ing have been very general the last lew days. Besides
announcements of all kinds of festivities, toys, sweetmeats,
and cakes have abounded in the shop- windows, and there
has been a great display of greenery for purchase, which
has now found its way to its destination. This includes
in some instances the outside as well as inside of houses,

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 385

boughs being placed over their entrances. Ferns and
gum-tree branches seem to be most generally used, but at
Midsummer they naturally soon lose their freshness, and
do not compare for beauty with our holly and other ever-
greens.

During the morning a dust-storm arose, so severe that
every now and then when a strong gust of wind brought
volumes of sand, the houses opposite our windows became
invisible through the thick white mist. The hydrants
with which the streets of Melbourne are watered were in
constant use to mitigate the evil as much as possible.
The storm did not prevail beyond the city, at least in the
direction in which we went, nor was it indeed considered
a severe visitation anywhere. We heard that sometimes
these storms are so dense that the drivers of vehicles have
to lead their horses, holding a light in their hands to make
known their presence.

This afternoon we went by railway to call upon friends
in one of the suburbs, and saw an abundance of well-
dressed pleasure-seekers; but the proportion of family
groups was smaller than on Christmas Day in England.
The Scotch are numerous here, and perhaps they have
brought with them their national disregard for this as a
family festival. The day is more brilliant than in our
finest summer weather, and the sun more powerful than
we ever know him in our latitude ; but there is a colder
wind blowing than we are accustomed to at the correspond-
ing season at home. It does not, however, prevent picnics.
Many passengers left the train at " Picnic Station " close
to a Government Keserve tolerably rich in trees, but, as
they are gums, affording little shelter from the sun.

In driving out to Toorak to dine at Government House
(where the after-dinner toast was "The Queen — God bless
her!") we were again among the holiday-makers, but
although it was evening we saw neither drunkenness nor
rough behaviour.

December 26th. This we are informed is a far more
general holiday than yesterday, and besides the usual
festivities of Boxing-day, is distinguished by the cricket

2 c

386 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

match between the eighteen Victorians and the All
England Eleven.

F had occasion to go to Toorak very early, and

although her train started before nine in the morning,
already the station was crowded with passengers leaving
town or arriving from the country. There was no pushing
or rude behaviour ; everyone seemed good-tempered and
desirous to promote the convenience of all. The railway
passes the cricket-ground, and on her return she saw this
large space, the price of entrance to which was half-a-
crown, lined very many rows deep with brightly-attired
company. The Governor, and 30,000 of his subjects were
expected to be present. The grand stand was filling fast,
and round about the enclosure were large numbers bent
on seeing all that could be seen from the outside.

Meanwhile K had availed herself of an invitation to

accompany a member of the Ladies' Benevolent Society in
a round of visits to the families under her charge. The
visits are of course not made at fixed times, and to-day was

kindly chosen to suit E 's scanty leisure ; another would

have shown her more of the inhabitants, as the holiday
had emptied several of the dwellings. Most of the
families she saw occupy distinct houses, frequently built
of wood and extremely small. There were one or two
that in dirt and neglect rivalled any similar tenements
in England, but standing in wide streets and under

brighter skies they did not impress R as equally

squalid. The recipients of the Society's aid resembled
their class at home. Some were thrifty and self-helpful,
others plainly needed the spur of necessity to exert them-
selves. Some evidently shrank from asking for help,
while others were quite willing to beg. In one family,
consisting of a very miserable-looking deserted wife who
yet seemed reluctant to seek aid her little child and her
mother who had no such scruples, a visitor, stout in form

and red in face, was introduced by the latter to E. 's

companion and herself as " this lady from Sydney." Her
gay attire, consisting of a transparent white bonnet trimmed
with brilliant pink and a pea-green dress, probably be-

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 387

tokened that she had come to Melbourne to honour the
cricket match with her presence. " This lady from
Sydney," announced the mother with much dignity,
" knew my daughter there, and gave her away when she
was married," a statement which the visitor confirmed
with the words, " I did, ma'am," uttered in a tone of great
complacency, as though she had performed a very meri-
torious deed. Looking at the forlorn and ragged young

wife, B thought her self-satisfaction decidedly out of

place.

Entirely to avoid imposition is perhaps impossible, but

the careful personal administration of relief which ii

witnessed probably reduces its abuse to the minimum. If
help be improperly obtained from other sources the donors
are as much to blame as are indiscriminate alms-givers
in London in all localities where charitable organization
operates. The Ladies' Benevolent Society is well-known
in Melbourne, the ladies for each district will visit all
cases laid before them, and the public have reason to
rely confidently alike upon their benevolence and their
discretion. We took much pains to ascertain with what
degree of approval their labours are generally regarded.
One opinion only seemed to prevail, and one highly honour-
able to their zeal and self-devotion. The periodical state-
ments of their expenditure which Government requires

from them, the Colonial Treasurer informed F he

himself examines, and added that he considered this So-
ciety conducted its business better, on the whole, than
any other administering funds derived from the State.

In the afternoon, besides making calls, we visited the
Immigrants' Aid Society's Home. Originally intended
for the temporary accommodation of immigrants, it is
used little for this purpose now, and it has for some years
received casuals, young women, children, and many in-
curables, who otherwise would be relieved in the Benevo-
lent Asylum ; the two institutions dividing between them
the classes who inhabit our workhouses. The Home con-
sists of several humble blocks of building, erected for
various purposes as occasion required. Thus there is an

2c2

388 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

absence of external regularity and order, but the whole
was clean, and the discipline apparently satisfactory.
It is impressed upon the inmates that this institution
affords temporary shelter only (except to the perma-
nently afflicted), and they are urged, and also assisted,
to obtain employment elsewhere. Thus the admissions
and discharges during 1872^ exceeded respectively 9000 ;
the daily average of inmates being 430. While in the
Home all are employed in remunerative labour who are
capable of performing it ; and last year they earned in
this way more than 900Z. for the institution. Besides
washing being taken in, they pick oakum, teaze hair, and
go out to work by the day. Some are thus employed as
gardeners, getting perhaps 2s. a-day, of which half accu-
mulates for the earner, and is given to him on departure.

By an alteration, the good effect of which is dwelt upon
in last year's Report,* the children are as much as possible
separated from the adults, excepting those who are so
young as to need the care of their mothers. Many of the
latter are unmarried, and how to obtain for them employ-
ment outside the Home is a painful problem to the mana-
gers. " To the question, ' What are you proposing to do
tor a living ? ' the answer invariably returned is : ' Take a
wet-nurse's situation.' And, ' What will you do with your
own infant ? ' receives for reply : ' Give it out to dry-nurse.'
Everybody knows from experience what may reasonably
be expected to follow such a step. It is by no means a
rare occurrence in such a case, when the mother obtains a
wet-nurse's situation, and puts her own child to dry-nurse
with some baby-farmer, that in a few weeks afterwards she
applies, with her infant sick, perhaps dying from atrophy,
superinduced by improper feeding. ... In every respect
the i'uture of many of the female inmates who appeared
before your committee is beset with much perplexity and
unsatisfactory prospects."! This institution, like the Bene-

* ' Twentieth Annual Report of the Immigrants' Aid Society's Home for
Houseless and Destitute Poor.' Melbourne : Maeon & Co., Flinders Lane,
West.

t Ibid.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 389

volent Asylum, is managed by volunteers, and these appear
to be all gentlemen. Ladies might, perhaps, deal more
successfully with this class of inmates.

The children are described as of a very low class, need-
ing to be taught cleanliness and decency of behaviour;
and for this reason, probably, receive instruction within
the Home, instead of attending a common school outside —
which would probably be a preferable arrangement on
many accounts, were they fit to associate with the off-
spring of the independent working-classes.

For the casuals, who enter at night and leave in the
morning, the lodging provided is, owing partly to the
want of funds, of the scantiest kind consistent with de-
cency. For the humble food supplied the able-bodied
must give the value in labour before they are permitted to
depart. Great pains are taken to limit the recipients of
charity in the Home to the right class. A special com-
mittee of investigation from time to time personally ex-
amines every case, to ascertain its claim upon the institu-
tion, and to promote the removal of all for whom its
shelter is unsuitable, fully reporting the result of their in-
quiries. In concluding one of these reports they remark :
" The really healthy and able-bodied were few, and these
not belonging to the labouring-classes, but chiefly clerks
or professionals who have missed their opportunity and
are now dependent upon precarious means of earning a
living."* Keferring to the inmates generally, they say :
" Reckless living and exposure, it is clear from the state-
ments made, have caused many to become helpless for
life."t

The Home is mainly supported by a Government grant,
this being supplemented by subscriptions and the produce
of the labour of the inmates. Without deduction for the
value of the latter, the total cost, including building ex-
penses, was for 1872, about 14Z. 5s. per head.

* Twentieth Annual Report. f Ibid.

390 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

CHAPTEE XXIV.

Ballarat — Memorial Fountain — Mechanics' Institute — Industrial School
for Girls — Hospital — Black Hill — Gold Mines — Orphanage —
Boarding-out — Approaching Departure from Melbourne — Intermediate
Prison — Gratuities — Prisoners' Aid Society — Board of Honorary
Visitors — Statistics — Reformatory and Industrial Schools — Prisoners
— Summary of Crime in Victoria.

DECEMBER 27TH. We left Melbourne by the 6.30 A.M.
train for Ballarat, distant nearly a hundred miles, in a
north-west direction, the journey thither occupying four
hours. The line passes through Geelong, and, as is fre-
quently the case in Australian towns, it is not protected
by a fence, the rails running along, or traversing the
streets without let or hindrance. Geelong is about twenty
miles from Melbourne, and from the large space it occu-
pies, has a somewhat scattered appearance. We could see
Irom the train handsome buildings, and two good-looking
hotels. There is a certain watering-place expression about
it rather than that of a busy port, which reveals the change
in its destiny since it first aspired to rival Melbourne.

Soon after leaving Geelong we quitted the plain,
entering a somewhat broken country, much less burnt in
appearance. Here we continued gradually to ascend, the
line passing through scrub and a thinly-wooded but
prettily undulating district, bold isolated hills appearing
in the distance. Here and there a little station indicated
a township, though there was small evidence of population
to supply traffic. At length emerging from among the
hills, the white buildings of Ballarat gleaming in the sun-
shine, lay before us. The town, covering a great deal of
space, occupies a broad shallow basin amid an almost
mountainous region sufficiently high above the sea to

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA. 39 1

make the climate quite different from that of Melbourne.
There are two stations, one at East Ballarat, the other
at Ballarat proper. The latter was nearest to the house
of the friend who was to show us all that could be
squeezed into our few hours' sojourn, and she forthwith
took us under her guidance.

One part of the town is singularly handsome. Where
two main and very wide streets cross, the fine site afforded
by their junction is occupied by a memorial fountain to
the explorers led by Burke and Wills. Bound about
stand four banks and the principal public buildings — the
Townhall, Post and Telegraph Office, Mechanics Institute,
&c., all of a fine light-coloured stone and good design.
Public gardens down the middle of Sturt Street, and trees
along the footways, give the city a continental aspect;
and its general appearance, together with the bright
atmosphere, reminded us of a German watering-place.
One almost looked about for the "Brunnen," and ex-
pected to hear classical music from a first-rate band !

"What, however, most impressed us was the substantial
and long-established air which Ballarat — "Canvas-town"
in 1852, when all her population lived in tents — now
wears. Probably, indeed, she has worn it already a long
time — colonially speaking — for we learn that a plot of land
which in 1853 might have been bought for 2.01., sold, only
five or six years afterwards, for 10Z. a foot frontage ! A
large hotel was built upon it (which stands there now), and
the land could not have commanded such a price unless
other buildings of importance surrounded the spot, or were
about to do so.

We ran into the Mechanics' Institute, a fine edifice
containing a hall for meetings and entertainments, and a
free library with a separate room for female readers;
and then sped away to the Industrial School for Girls, a
large airy building erected for its present purpose, two
miles and a-half distant. It was past the hour for lessons
on a Saturday, but scrubbing was going on in all direc-
tions ; the girls, with shoes and stockings off, two to one
bucket brush and cloth, used the latter alternately, and the

392 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

bucket in common, an economy of arrangement new to
us. The cleanliness and order of the building might, we
thought, have been surpassed, but the appearance and
bearing of the children were good, and the matron's manner
towards them was very pleasant. Few are above twelve;
and the demand for servants is so great that the list of
applications for them is full to the end of next year.

Boarding-out has removed a considerable number of the
little ones, which the matron laments, as the elder girls
used to take care of them, and now lose this training.
Schooling is given on the half-time plan. The distance
from Ballarat is considered too great for the girls to
attend public worship there ; and as it is very rare for a
clergyman to come to the school, the matron usually con-
ducts religious service. The children have no gardens,
but play in the fields surrounding the house.

Two girls were shown to us, perhaps eight and nine
years old, who had been brought to the institution two or
three years ago from a hut in the bush, where it was ascer-
tained they had been living a considerable time absolutely
alone ; but they must have been strangely neglected for a
much longer period. When they arrived, -they either
would not or could not speak, or even sit, their mode of
resting being to lie on the ground. Both speak easily
now, we were told, though our efforts to obtain a response
to our questions completely failed. One of the little dam-
sels was successfully darning a stocking, and looked bright ;
nor did we understand that dullness of intellect is suspected
in either.

From the school to the hospital we drove through
prettily laid-out, but at present very new-looking, Bo-
tanical Gardens, bordering a miniature lake, on which are
pleasure-boats. A lake it is now, though formerly a
swamp, which several years ago became perfectly dry.
Some years afterwards the water returned, and it has not
since disappeared. The hospital, supported by subscriptions
and a State grant, is large, and on the separate-wing plan,
and stands in a nice garden. Some of the flower-beds were
covered with refuse from a foundry, so used, we were told,

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 393

to prevent the soil from drying. The exterior of the
building is cheerful, and even elegant in appearance,
without being costly. One portion of the hospital, called
the " Prince Alfred Wing," in commemoration of the
Prince's visit to Ballarat, has been lately added, and is
lofty and admirably ventilated, the dimensions of the
wards allowing 1600 cubic feet of air to each patient, while
large windows, on both sides, reach to the top of the walls.
The wards in the older part were very hot, and we were
surprised to find neither verandahs or even Venetian blinds ;
but we were told that they are not needed in this cooler
hill climate, and that the temperature to-day was excep-
tionally high. To us it felt agreeably cool.

The male patients have male attendants, those whom
we saw being elderly and somewhat feeble-looking ; nor
on the women's side was there the orderly and refined
aspect which prevails where trained nurses are employed.

A long drive brought us to the Black Hill, scored and
burrowed in all directions by mining operations. Being
Saturday afternoon, the miners had "knocked off;" but,
thanks to the explanations given us at the Melbourne
Museum of the apparatus they use, we could pretty well
understand what the operations here must be. Very little
alluvial soil now remains, and the gold being almost entirely
extracted from quartz which requires costly machinery,
the mines are generally worked by companies, the
miners receiving tixed wages ; but sometimes individuals
still labour on their own account. No great discoveries
of the precious metal have been made lately, but there is a
steady moderate yield. Whatever soil is found in the mine
is crushed indiscriminately, and three pennyweights of gold
to the ton affords a profitable return. Excavations here,
we understand, are carried to a depth of two or three
hundred feet ; but at Sandhurst (originally Beudigo) these
have reached seventeen hundred feet, with no sign of
coming to the limit of the auriferous soil !

The aspect of any district where mines prevail suggests
a combination of new railway-works, brickfield, stone-
quarry, and rubbish-heap; but in the brilliant sunshine

394 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

to-day even these unfavourable elements in the view
were scarcely ugly, while the landscape beyond the mining
district is beautiful. Its chief characteristics are the
isolated and generally flat-topped hills rising above
an undulating wooded country, which we noticed this
morning.

Oar last visit was to an Orphanage, supported entirely
by private charity — a cheerful commodious building, at
the extreme edge of the town. It contains about 260 boys
and girls, who are not separated during the day. Only three
of the girls are above twelve, while a large proportion of
all the children are very much younger ; yet with the assist-
ance of two or three servants, and under the direction of
the excellent master and matron, they do the work of the
establishment — the boys taking the rougher parts, and
cultivating the garden. In other respects the two sexes
seemed to be treated alike. We saw them enjoying them-
selves in their common playground; and a bath, large
enough for swimming, is appropriated to the girls at one
part of the day, to the boys at another. The children
make all their clothes, except shoes. These, too, they
made formerly ; but the number of boys old enough for
the work is now too small for it to be worth while to
employ a teacher. Every part of the building was in
good order, and the bed-linen looked beautifully white.
Late on a Saturday afternoon there were, of course, no
lessons going forward, and our time did not permit us to
test in any way the amount and quality of the instruction
given ; but from the unconstrained bearing and animated
and healthy appearance of the children, and from the
general aspect of the building, we received a very pleasant
impression of this institution.

In conclusion, our friend took us to the house of a lady ,
who, like herself, is an active member of a boarding-out
committee, and we had much pleasant chat about their
work. There are two of these organisations here — one at
Ballarat East, the other at Ballarat West — having under
their separate care about ninety children ; and good homes
could be found for a larger number. It was growing dusk

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 395

when we left for Melbourne, and midnight when we
reached our hotel, weary, but well pleased with our
excursion.

We have seen the exterior only of Melbourne University,
which is well placed on high ground, quite outside the city.
It is a handsome building in the Late Perpendicular
style, and, when complete, will form a quadrangle. Three
sides are finished, but the southern, which will be the
principal facade, remains to be built. This University
differs from that of Sydney, in admitting women to
matriculation.

In the University reserve of a hundred acres, which is
prettily laid-out in gardens and pleasure-ground, stands
the Museum, so placed as to be protected by the Univer-
sity buildings from the dust of Melbourne. It contains
an interesting collection in various branches of natural

science, remarkable for their excellent arrangement. E

found time one clay for a very short visit, and was especially
struck with the groups of stuffed animals, in which the
aspect and attitudes of nature are admirably preserved.

Victoria has recently spent, within one year, half a
million sterling upon elementary education. The Act of
1872 makes the ordinary curriculum of instruction in the
Government schools gratuitous to all, and much of the
expenditure has consisted in buying Denominational and
converting them to State schools. When sufficient accom-
modation has in this way, and by building, been secured
for the whole population of school-going age, the com-
pulsory clauses of the Act, left until then in abeyance,
will be enforced.

The programme of obligatory subjects of study is drawn
up for six successive classes, and embraces all the branches
of a plain English education. It includes, for the girls,
every description of plain-needlework, and to the highest
class cutting-out is also taught.

In districts where population is very thin, a half-time
system prevails ; one teacher is allowed to give instruction
at two different places on the same day, an attendance of
two hours and a half being required from the pupils in

396 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

each school. Elsewhere four hours daily must be occupied
with the appointed curriculum ; but extra subjects — Latin,
French, drawing, &c., for which the pupils pay very mode-
rate fees — may be studied at other times. Religious in-
struction may be given out of school-hours, and both
clergymen and lay-teachers attend at some at least, if not
at all, of the schools to impart it.

Eight exhibitions, of the annual value of 35?. each, tenable
for six years, are awarded every year by Government to
the pupils of State-supported schools, upon certain con-
ditions, including attendance at a public grammar-school,
subsequent matriculation at Melbourne University, and
passing its first B.A. degree examination at the end of the
fourth year of tenure.

The lowest salary to a teacher is 80?., which, for the
head master of a large school, may rise to some hundreds ;
for instance, his emolument for an average attendance of
350 pupils would amount to 360?. (partly fixed salary, and
partly payment by results), the salary still increasing
with an increased attendance. Assistant and pupil-teachers
are liberally paid in proportion.

The schools were closed during most of our stay in

Melbourne, but after they had reopened R paid a

hasty visit to two. These were formerly Denominational,
but had been bought by the Government. Boys and girls
were in the same classes, the girls generally occupying the
front benches. The pupils included boys of very different

ranks, R was told, but girls belonging to the higher

classes of society do not attend the public schools. The
teachers are of both sexes, and the staff in one of the
schools numbered seven, the scholars in attendance being

250. Not only is education gratuitous, but R found

that school-books and slates are provided free of cost.

At both schools some of the pupils were drawing, but
not from real objects ; they were simply copying drawings.

Others were differently occupied, but R observed

nothing specially noteworthy in the teaching or its results,
except the manner, indicating excellent instruction, in
which the highest class in one of the schools answered
geographical questions.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 397

While in South Australia we had heard of efforts, of
which it is too early yet to judge of the results, to intro-
duce Sericulture — a term, however, signifying at present
in Australia the production of healthy eggs from the silk-
worm more olteii than the growth of silk itself. For
many years disease has prevailed among these tiny spinners
in, Europe, and though recourse has been had to Japan,
the stock imported thence has been hardly more healthy.
Meanwhile the demand increases ; and if good " grain,"
as the eggs are technically called, can be raised in large
quantities, and a reliable method can be devised for con-
veying it to the silk-making countries of the old world —
the danger to be avoided being, of course, the prema-
ture hatching of the eggs in the tropics — a most im-
portant article of export will be added to the resources of
Australia.

The Government of New South Wales proposes, it is
said, to have the management of the worms — their " educa-
tion," as it is called — taught in the public schools. West
Australia has made a grant of land to a lady-seri-
culturist; and has placed the sum of 500Z. on the esti-
mates as a bonus for the first bale of silk produced there ;
but Victoria is the most active in the enterprise.* At
Melbourne a company for its promotion has been created,
and is managed entirely by ladies ; and numerous branch
societies formed in country districts are in correspondence
\\ith it. One of the ladies now actively concerned in con-
ducting the business of the Association was so good as to
call upon us, and give us information upon its working.
To the energy of Mrs. Bladen Neill, however, the present
activity of the movement is doubtless owing ; and from a
little manual for sericulturists which she has published
we have also derived particulars of its progress.!

Several years ago, distressed by the misery into which
the farmers of the Murray District were often plunged

* The Government of South Australia has recently offered bonuses
for the cultivation of mulberry-trees, and the production of cocoous. —
Government Gazette, Feb. 7, 1875.
t ' The Silkworm.' Melbourne : Mason, Firth, and M'Cutcheon. 1873.

398 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

by the failure of wheat crops and the uncertainty of
markets, Mrs. Neill cast about for some supplementary
industry which they could combine with their ordinary
occupations. Aware of the deterioration of the silkworm
in the countries where hitherto it had been grown, it
occurred to her that a new and stronger race might be
developed in Australia, and that sericulture, which is
pursued by the small agriculturists of the south of Europe,
would supply the kind of employment she desired to
introduce.

The first step was to provide food for the worms, and
with this view Mrs. Neill planted the mulberry largely.
The variety which has been acclimatized at the Cape of
Good Hope grows admirably in Australia, and produces
from seed sown broadcast plants from which the leaves
may in a few months be gathered.

1 In 1870 Mrs. Neill began to raise grain. She appears,
however, not to have been satisfied ; and resolved to go to
Europe, hoping both to discover a remedy for disease
among the worms, and to secure a market for her grain,
when she should be able to produce the necessary quantity.
After visiting many of the chief seats of sericulture in
Italy and France, and finding disease everywhere and a
general despair of extirpating it, she heard accidentally of
the Magnanerie (or silkworm-farm) of M. Koland, at Orbe,
Canton de Vaud, Switzerland. Thither she repaired, and
remained four months to study his system. This con-
sists in restoring the creatures to a comparatively natural
mode of life, disease having evidently been engendered
by the rapacity of the silk-growers, who, with the object
of increasing the amount of silk, had subjected the worms
to an artificial existence, which included among its highly
injurious elements overcrowding and restriction from the
open air.

M. Koland began by establishing a nursery — or rather
a convalescent home — at such an altitude as should pre-
clude premature hatching, and there he allows the worms
to live for two successive seasons in the mill berry-trees,
slightly protected from wind and cold, and entirely so from

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 399

rain. The grain of the third season is hatched indoors, while
that of the fourth is sold to produce silk, being perfectly
free from disease. " Regeneration," however, as this
process for restoring the race to health is called, must
be continuous, as M. Roland " considers that after five
or six reproductions disease will reappear ; for from the
moment the worm is taken from the tree and subjected to
artificial indoor treatment, degeneration begins, though
the beauty of the silk is greatly increased through what
may be called artificial education." After a certain
stage under ordinary indoor treatment " the race becomes
so weak that the worms become diseased and die in
thousands, and subsequently the whole crop of silk or
grain is lost."* The knowledge that the superior appear-
ance of the material is secured by the sufferings of disease
should teach us to be satisfied with the less attractive
produce of the healthy animal ; but it is well that in the
risk of losing the worm a powerful motive appeals to the
self-interest of the grower to " educate " it under sanitary
conditions.

Unhappily at other stages of this industry much cruelty
is now practised. Thus we learn that when the eggs have
been laid, " all the moths should be destroyed, either by
burning or on a manure-heap. About three days is suffi-
cient for this purpose." And again, that the chrysalis
within the cocoon from which silk is to be wound is
destroyed by subjecting it to the influence of steam. A
"suffocating machine," the invention of a gentleman at Turin,
destroys about 90uO Ibs. of cocoons a-day — very rapidly
let us hope. For small silk-growers a method is recom-
mended which requires that the process should continue at
least half-an-hour. In this " care must be taken to see that
the vapour be sufficiently hot to strike the cocoons for a
sufficiently long time when boiling. To test the success,
open some of the largest cocoons and touch the chrysalis
with a hot iron. If it shows signs of life the process has
not been complete, and it must be repeated."! We quote

The Silkworm.' f Ibid.

400 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

these revolting details in the hope that by directing
attention to the subject more humane methods for accom-
plishing the desired ends may be devised.

M. Roland's success in restoring the worm to health
has been followed by the gratifying result that from
twenty-five pounds and a half weight of cocoons produced
from his grain, two pounds and an eighth of silk is obtained,
while five hundred and seventy of his cocoons will produce
in a season cocoons equal to two pounds and an eighth in
weight, a success in which French silk-growers accustomed
to deal with the sickly grain imported from Japan could
at first hardly believe.*

Having ascertained that cocoons of the quality she had
already obtained in Australia would sell in Europe at the
highest price, and informed herself of the best method
of reeling silk, Mrs. Neill started for Sydney, taking with
her a supply of grain from Orbe. Most elaborate pre-
cautions were employed to secure its safe passage through
the tropics, which was achieved by packing it in ice, though
constant watching seems to have been also necessary. Ar-
riving in January 1873, Mrs. Neill was able to raise from
the grain she had brought a fresh supply in time to dis-
patch it in the following March to the Vienna Exhibition.

It is calculated that a quarter of an acre of land planted
with mulberry-trees will in Victoria support forty thousand
worms, the moths from which will produce one ounce of
grain, and this will reproduce the following season one
hundred and twenty ounces, the price of which is estimated
at 11. an ounce.

Mrs. Neill has established a silkworm-farm on her own
property, Corowa, on the Murray, which is managed by a
lady trained in the art of sericulture; and a thousand
acres also have been allotted to the use of the Association
for Sericulture by the Government of Victoria. Mrs. Neillj
however, looks forward to a large amount of grain being
produced by very small cultivators, and an agency has
been organized for transmitting in a combined form the
quantities they raise to the European market.

* ' The Silkworm.'

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 401

Our departure from Melbourne was at hand, and we had
not yet seen the " intermediate stage " of prison discipline
— the keystone of the Crofton system, which Victoria has
now, happily, made her own. It was impossible to leave
without one of us, at least, personally noting its operation,
and equally impossible for both of us to spare time to do

so. F , therefore, accompanied Mr. Duncan in an

official visit to "Williamstown on the morning of December
29th, before starting for Adelaide by the steamer ' Aldinga,'
early in the afternoon. She will tell her own story : —

We first went to the hulks. Formerly only one was
used, and the men slept mostly in association. A second
is now being adapted for their habitation that each man
may have a cell to himself, which will be nearly as large
as a first-class cabin for four persons on a P. and 0. steamer,
and fairly well ventilated. These compartments are not
constructed with such strength as would resist violence, if
the men chose to break their way out ; but at so advanced
a stage of their discipline, attained moreover by good con-
duct, this is not apprehended. The cells have no provision
for artificial light, but means to introduce it are being
taken. It is much needed, as the locking-up hour is
6 P.M., and very little daylight enters at any time.

The men take their meals together upon the main deck.
They were just ending dinner when we arrived, and had not
resumed labour before our hurried visit was over, so that I
could not observe in what spirit they work ; they look
like ordinary labourers, though perhaps a little rougher in
dress and manners, but with nothing except the Govern-
ment mark on their clothes to indicate that they are
prisoners. They are employed in constructing a break-
water at the mouth of the Yarra, designed to deepen and
regulate the channel. They quarry the stone on shore,
about a quarter of a mile from the hulks, and bring it by
a tramway to a little jetty, whence they convey it in boats
to its appointed place. The quarries are entirely untenced,
but the warders there carry loaded firearms.

No schooling is given to the men in the stages passed at
Williamstown, but I think they have the use of a library.

2 D

402 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

From the hulks we went to the docks at Williamstown,
two or three miles distant, to see the sixth-stage men at
work. Want of time unfortunately prevented me from
visiting the house in which they are lodged. It is not fitted
up as a prison, though the men cannot go in and out at
will. This, however, I learnt from Mr. Duncan, is to
protect them, from suspicion, if crimes are committed in
the neighbourhood, rather than from distrust of the men
themselves.

The prisoners, whose warders are here unarmed, are
employed together with free labourers — though keeping
somewhat apart — at contract work, and the contractor
considers that they work as well as the free men. They
are now engaged in levelling the ground, removing hills
of soil, and filling up hollows with stones.

Prisoners who have reached the fifth and sixth stages,
but who are not equal to hard labour, are employed in
lighter work, but receive only half the amounts in gratuity
the others obtain. These are Id., 2d., and 4:d. respectively,
for every nine marks earned daily in the fourth, fifth,
and sixth stages, the allowances accumulating and being
paid in a lump sum on discharge — a variation from the
method adopted in the Irish Intermediate Prison of placing
a portion at the prisoner's disposal during the last period
of his detention, which embodies Captain Maconochie's
principle of accustoming him to the use of money, as to
other features of ordinary life, while he is still to some
extent under guidance. In England the accumulated
gratuity is paid on liberation into the hands of a Dis-
charged Prisoners' Aid Society to be spent for the ex-
prisoner's benefit ; or, where no Prisoners' Aid Society
exists, the chaplain of the gaol takes charge of the money.
There is such a Society at Melbourne, but unhappily
it has no lady-members, and concerns itself only with
discharged male prisoners.

A valuable recommendation by the Royal Commission —
the appointment, namely, of a Board of Honorary Visitors
of Gaols and Penal Establishments — does not appear yet
to have been acted upon. The Commissioners suggested

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 403

that " the proper employment of female prisoners in the
Penitentiary and the best method of disposing of them on
their release should be left to the decision of this body."*
It is obvious, therefore, that they contemplated ladies
sitting on the Board ; and these might in such a position
efficiently render the services of a Discharged Prisoners'
Aid Society to women on their liberation.

In concluding the notice we have been able to give of
the important subject of penal and reformatory discipline
in Victoria, it may be useful to subjoin the following
statistics. The number of children in her Industrial and
.Reformatory Schools was on : —

Industrial Reformatory
Schools. I Schools. lotaL

1
January 1, 1872 .. ..

2442

179

2621

January 1, 1873 .. ..

2379

168

2547

Remaining on
December 31, 1873

1682

153

1835f

The yearly cost in the Reformatory and Industrial
Schools of Victoria is not given separately ; but the
average of both together, after deducting the value of the
labour of the inmates, is 19?. 2s. tid. per head.

The total number of children boarded-out in 1873 was
650, of whom 566 were with their foster-parents at the
end of the year. Reports from the Ladies' Committees
show the children to be clean, well-clothed, well-lodged,
and — with the exception of three — healthy. All who
were old enough were regularly attending day and Sunday
schools, except that a very small number were prevented,
occasionally, by illness. Of the eighty-four who oy the end

* 'Report' (No. 2), p. 20.

t ' Reports of the Inspector of Industrial and Reformatory Schools in
Victoria for 1872-73. '

2D2

404 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

of the year had quitted their foster-homes the following
return is given : — *

Sick 23

Imbecile 1

Unmanageable 5

Thieving 2

Discharged f 23

Transferred [to other homes probably] .. .. 12

Adopted 1

Board ed-out in error 3

Difference of religion 1

Childrens' address found out by mother . . . . 3

Foster-parents' health failing 1

Given up by foster-parents 2

Absconded and sent back to schools J .. .. 3

Died 4

84

Bearing in mind that the whole 650 children were
boarded-out in the course of a very few months, necessi-
tating perhaps haste in the selection of some of the homes ;
and that a considerable proportion of these young people
were above the age at which in England we anticipate
success, this return appears to us satisfactory.

The trial of the boarding-out system now being con-
ducted in Victoria and in South Australia is important
not to themselves alone, but to their sister colonies, who
may profit from their experience. Tasmania has already
adopted the system on a limited scale, and it was reported
recently to be working well there. If its applicability to
the circumstances of a new country be satisfactorily proved,
New South Wales will probably soon avail herself of its
advantages ; while it may be expected that the remaining
provinces will not long forego its benefits. That the
principles on which the system is based are sound has

* ' Report of Inspector of Industrial and Eeformatory Schools, 1873,'
p. 12.

f The period of legal detention had, we conclude, expired.

j Another had absconded, but had been returned to its foster-parents.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

405

been proved to demonstration, but that it must be
administered with great caution, with zeal, and with a
personal and indeed almost affectionate interest in the
children, is likewise patent. The qualities necessary to
success abound in Australia, and we entertain strong hopes
of a favourable issue to this important experiment.*

The total number of adult prisoners in Victoria at the
close of the three vears, 1871-2-3, was as follows : —

In the Ten Common
Gaols.

In the Throe
Departments of the Penal
Establishment.

TotaL

Males.

Females.

'Peintridge.

Hulks.

House.

December 31, 1871 ..

644

253

606

91

29

1623

December 31, 1872 ..

641

215

571

112f

17

1556

December 31, 1873 ..

602

261

585

101

26J

1575§

The total population of Victoria at the census of April,

* The method of disposing of the waifs of English cities, and of some of
the inmates of English pauper schools, pursued for several years with a self-
devotion above praise by Miss Eye and Miss Macpherson, who convey
their little charges to Canada, and there obtain their adoption into families,
has many points of resemblance with the boarding-out system as practised
in Australia, the condition of the two countries being in some respects
alike. The recent official report, dated January 1875, of Mr. Doyle, Local
Government Inspector, upon the condition of these children, points out the
desirableness of greater caution in placing them, and above all, in super-
vising them when placed, than these ladies have been able to exercise in
regard to the very large number upon whom their generous labours have
bestowed the brighter prospects afforded by transference to a new country.
We see no reason why Australia should be deterred by the difficulties,
and, as Mr. Doyle reports, to a certain extent even failure which Miss
Bye and Miss Macpherson have encountered ; but their experience may be
useful to show how wise has been the course followed by the authorities
both in South Australia and in Victoria, in securing voluntary and local
co-operation in the choice of homes and surveillance o'f the children.

f 1 absconded during 1872.

j 3 absconded during 1873.

§ ' Reports of the Inspector-General of Penal Establishments for
1872-3.'

406 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

1871, was 731,528, of whom 17,935 were Chinese, and
1330 aboriginals.*

The average cost of prisoners for the year 1872, less the
value of labour performed, was in the penal establishments,
151. 12s. ; and the average for nine common gaols was
Yll. 9s. 2d. ; the tenth gaol, at Castlemaine, in that year
more than paid its expenses. For 1873, the cost in the
penal establishments was 97. 14s. lid. per head; while in
the ten common gaols it amounted to 22Z. 17s. 5d. In
one of the latter (Sandhurst) the prisoners were almost
self-supporting, their annual cost to the State being only
14s. 2d. each, f Different circumstances, however, which
our limits do not permit us to go into, affected the pay-
ments for labour in some of the common gaols in 1873,
and the amount actually performed does not vary to the
extent these figures make it appear to do.

Going back ten years, we find that though the number
of persons taken into custody in Victoria has somewhat
increased, namely, from 22,255 in 1863 to 23,705 in 1872
(of whom considerably upwards of 20,000 were discharged
or summarily committed), the number tried and convicted
sank in the ten years from 653 to 407.

More than three-quarters of the persons taken into
custody in 1872 came from the United Kingdom, Vic-
toria herself contributing less than one-tenth. More than
three-quarters of the whole number were men. The
highest number for both sexes in any decade of age was
between 30 and 40 years old. Thirty-eight men have
been executed in the past ten years, and one woman—
happily the only female offender who has undergone
capital punishment in Victoria. |

* ' Statistics of the Colony of Victoria for 1872.' Part III. Ferres, Mel-
bourne.

t ' Reports of the Inspector-General of Penal Establishments for
1872-3.'

£ ' Statistics of the Colony of Victoria for 1872.' Part V.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 407

CHAPTER XXV.

TASMANIA.

Van Diemen's Land — Convicts — Change of Name — Bass's Straits —
Intense Cold — St. George's Heads — The Tamar — Launceston —
Invalid Depot — Out-door Belief — Benevolent Society — Falls of the
South Esk — Cheap Coaches — The Mail — Journey by Night —
Bridge water — The Derwent — Hobartqn — Mount Wellington — Go-
vernment House — The Queen's Domain — Botanic Gardens — Museum
— Governor Davey's Proclamation — The last Aboriginal — Transporta-
tion— The " Cascades " — Female Prison — Asylum for the Destitute —
Reformatory for Boys — Fern-tree Bower — Mount Nelson — Flowers
— Fruits — Return to Adelaide — Higher Education.

THE island now called Tasmania, lying between. 40° 45',
and 43° 45' parallels of south latitude, and 144° 45', and
148° 30' degrees of east longitude, was discovered in 1642
by the Dutch navigator Tasman, when dispatched by the
Governor of Batavia to explore "The Great Unknown South
Land," as Australia was called in those days. Tasman
named the new country Van Diemen's Land, some persons
believe after his patron ; others maintain in honour of his
patron's daughter, Maria Van Diemen, to whom he was
attached. Until 1798, when Bass and Flinders made
their way through the strait which bears the name of
the former, Van Diemen's Land was believed to be a
portion of the Australian continent.

The first settlement on the island was founded in 1803,
under the direction of the Governor of New South Wales,
as an auxiliary to Port Jackson, for the reception of
convicts. Van Diemen's Land remained a part of that
colony until 1824, when it was made independent of New
South AY ales. Convicts were sent in large numbers from
England until the year 1853, when the colonists suc-
ceeded in compelling the mother country to yield to their

408 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

determination to receive them no longer. The painful
associations with the name of Van Diemen's Land, con-
nected as it was with the horrors of transportation,
prompted the colonists to petition the Queen that it
might be changed. Permission being granted, the island
was named Tasmania, in honour of its first discoverer.
Its present representative form of government, adopted
in 1855, is similar to that prevailing in others of our
Australian colonies.

For various reasons, our stay in Sydney had been pro-
longed so much beyond the time we had calculated upon,
that we even feared we might have to give up our visit

to Tasmania altogether. F , indeed, was compelled to

do so ; but accompanied by a cousin, E spent eight

days in that charming island.

The distance from Melbourne to Launceston is 276 miles,
a voyage of from twenty-six to thirty hours. My cousin

N and I sailed from the former place on the 30th

December, 1873, at 10 A.M. The Eip was more like a
whirlpool than I had seen it in previous voyages. We
seemed, on passing Queen's Cliff, to plunge into a foaming
surge, driven by the wind in all directions at once, so
that the waves dashed against the vessel on every side at
the same moment. A fellow-passenger told me that on
one occasion, when the same steamer was traversing the
Eip, the sea had carried the bulwarks away on one side,
and washed a young lady and a little boy off the deck,
whose bodies were never recovered. This accident had
produced such an effect on our captain, that he would
never afterwards permit his female passengers to remain
on deck during the transit in stormy weather. I con-
clude, therefore, that ours was a mild experience, as we
received no orders to go below. But however mild in
reality, it sufficed to send a fair proportion of our com-
panions to their berths ; and as the sea continued dis-
turbed, few of them reappeared until we had entered the
estuary of the Tamar.

Our route lay from north-west to south-east, across Bass's
Strait. This channel between two vast oceans forms a

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 409

comparatively narrow passage, running almost due east
and west, from one or other of which points of the compass
the wind there generally blows; the water being thus
violently driven through so confined a space necessarily
creates a rough sea.

The cold, though it was midsummer, became intense in
the afternoon, and I was glad to use every wrap I could
procure. Luckily for me there was an abundance, some

belonging to N , reduced to her berth, and some kept

on board the vessel for the benefit of the passengers, a
comfort I never met with in any former voyage. Eemark-
ing to one of the ship's officers that it was bitterly cold,
he answered, " Oh, yes ; we have a southerly wind, you
know ; " from which I learnt we had not yet advanced far
enough to be protected from it by Tasmania.

When I went on deck on the 31st, we could distin-
guish the mountains on the northern coast of the island
as they gradually emerged from the soft mists of the early
morning. The temperature increased as we approached
the shore, and as soon as we had entered the Tamar it
rose to summer heat. The ascent of the river — really
an arm of the sea — was very agreeable, between wooded
heights, with here and there a well-to-do looking hamlet.
The Tamar winds considerably ; its reaches, from which
often no outlet is visible, resembling a series of lakes.

Launceston, forty miles by the river from its mouth,
looked a clean little town as it seemed to bask in the
midday sun. It lies in an angle, between steep hills, at
the junction with the Tamar of the north and south Esk
rivers. Its broad streets and substantial banks, and public
offices built of the rich, creamy-brown, coloured Tasmanian
stone, give a handsome appearance to what otherwise would
be but an ordinary-looking place ; and a hedge of geraniums
growing against one of these edifices, ablaze with scarlet
flowers — our first introduction to the luxuriant blossom of
the island gardens — added to our agreeable impressions
on entering the town.

Among her institutions, Launceston possesses a public
library, a hospital, and an invalid depot, i.e. an asylum for

410 WHAT WE SA W IN AUSTRALIA.

men incapacitated for work by sickness or age ; women
requiring such shelter are received into the infirmary
belonging to the House of Correction. Similar refuges
exist in Hobarton, and together, these afford all the
in-door aid given to adult paupers throughout the island,
except that lunatics of their class go to the Asylum for
the Insane at New Norfolk, near the capital ; and male
paupers to Port Arthur, on Tasman's Peninsula, in the
south-east of the island, though there, we believe only
such as either are or have been prisoners are received.

Out-door relief is dispensed by magistrates in the towns,
and by officers called wardens in the rural districts. There
are, besides, two Benevolent Societies, — one at Launceston,
the other in the metropolis, — which administer out-door
relief. Their funds are derived from subscriptions, supple-
mented by Government grants. These societies were esta-
blished before direct out-door assistance was provided by
the Executive.

Several pleasant excursions can be made from Laun-
ceston. We had only time for one — to the cataracts of the
South Esk, so close to the town that the whole expedi-
tion requires barely an hour's row in a boat for its accom-
plishment. The little stream joins the Tamar just below
Launceston between two high cliffs, united by a suspension-
bridge connecting the town with the country lying north
of the river. To reach the mouth of the Esk we passed
on our way several wooden jetties, their gaunt black
beams looking forlorn without the vessels drawn up along-
side for which they had been constructed. Some are even
falling into decay, melancholy witnesses of the decrease
of trade.

After a pleasant row up the Esk, again between high
wooded cliffs of the remarkable perpendicular formation
so frequent in Australia, we reached the " Cataracts."
Our boat was able to approach within a short distance
of the rushing, tumbling water which poured over large
masses of rock, but did not appear to us to fall from any
considerable height.

New Year's Day is as great a festival here as in the other

WffA T WE SAW IN A US THALIA. 411

Australasian colonies, and the citizens of Launceston
were enjoying their holiday either in angling or in picnic
parties on the banks of the stream. Our boatman was a
devoted admirer of his country and of its resources.
Everything, according to his account, which was to be
found in the neighbouring mainland exists in Tasmania ;
but he did not entertain an exalted opinion of the powers
that were, and considered the best thing for the island
would be its union with Victoria. We heard afterwards
that the opinion he expressed was prevalent in Launceston
but found little favour at Hobarton. This, however, is
not surprising when we remember that supposing such a
union to be effected, the latter, once a metropolis and seat
of Government, would sink into what the former always has
been — a provincial town.

As a matter of course, whoever visits Australia brings
home opossum rugs. We had been advised to buy ours, if
possible, in Tasmania, where they are cheaper, and where
there is a better choice of the dark and by far the hand-
somer skins peculiar to that island. This variety is called
black, but the fur is really dull brown tipped with black.
The common kind is grey, and is called by English furriers
the Australian chinchilla. Friends at Launceston told us
where the best might be prociired, but feared the shop
would be closed for the holiday. Their surmise proved
too correct. The shutters were up, but happily the door
was ajar, and effecting an entrance we found the owner
quite willing to transact business.

As our order was large, and he could not complete it in
the short time we should remain in the island, we went to
another furrier to see what his shop would afford. Here
the shutters were likewise closed, but the door was open.
No rugs were to be had, but we found some very pretty
skins — tawny, with white spots — of the native cat, which,
though so named, is not of the feline tribe. It is ex-
tremely destructive in the farmyard, being especially fond
of eggs. Additional rugs we bought at Hobarton, as
well as some skins of the ornithorincus, of which the fur
is short and very close, and not unlike that of the seal.

4 1 2 WE A T WE SAW IN A US TRALIA.

The temperate climate of Tasmania has rendered it a
sanatorium as popular among Australians as it has long
been to the Anglo-Indians. The richer colonists of the
continent frequently spend the hottest months of the
year in the island. Launceston, as being considerably
nearer Australia than Hobarton, is a favourite place of
debarkation for these tourists. Their influx causes so
great an increase of traffic during the summer that at its
commencement several coaches are put on the road to
Hobarton in addition to the mail. But a railway is nearly
completed, and will soon supersede them. The mail, a
huge vehicle painted red, and with coachman and guard
in a livery of the same colour, contains three seats, and is
calculated to hold nine passengers inside, besides several
on its top. Supplementary coaches often run in oppo-
sition to the mail, and charge lower fares. They are
rickety old carriages, and as they are addicted to racing
with each other accidents not infrequently happen. A
fatal one had occurred very shortly before our arrival,

which determined N and myself, as we could not

spare three days for the journey in a carriage, by far the
pleasanter mode of transit, to travel by the mail. This
we were assured is compelled by Post Office regulations
to reach the stations along the road at fixed hours, and is
thus unable to indulge in racing with other coaches. Our
intention, therefore, was to quit Launceston at six in the
evening, to sleep at Campbell Town, forty miles distant,
and continue our journey by the day mail next morning.
But when we were securing our places at the coach office
we discovered that the day mail ran only three times a
week ; and that if we slept at Campbell Town we must
either go on by the " cheap coach " or delay a day and
night on the road. Either alternative was out of the
question. I therefore said to the clerk, " We must go
straight on to Hobarton through the night, and counter-
mand the beds we have telegraphed for at Campbell
Town." He answered with great suavity, to N 's in-
dignation and my own intense amusement, " Certainly,
ma'am, being ladies you are at liberty to change your

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 413

minds." We then hastened to the telegraph office, where
the clerk on learning our wishes politely pushed a paper
across the counter, saying, " The fact is, ma'am, the line
was engaged just now, and your message has not been
forwarded. Perhaps, therefore, the best way will be to
return it to you with the shilling" We could not but
feel highly satisfied at such a finale.

As an instance of thoughtful kindness in Tasmanians,
I may mention that we were expecting a telegram on that
day (New Year's Day) from Hobarton, but owing to the
general holiday the message did not reach Launceston until
after our departure. The authorities there, though we had
left no instruction on the subject, were so good as to for-
ward it to Campbell Town, where we found it on our arrival.

The New Year's Day races at Launceston had taken off
the whole staff of the hotel except one maid and a lad,
and with the staff the cart too, apparently the only vehicle
for conveying our luggage to the coach office by half-past
five o'clock, there to be weighed, and all in excess of the
14 Ibs. allowed to each passenger to be charged 3d. per Ib.
for carriage to Hobarton. Lack of punctuality we had
been told would necessitate leaving it behind. The time
for starting drew nearer and nearer, and still no cart
appeared. At length, dreading separation from our trunks
as much as did the traveller in 'Kob Roy' from his port-
manteau, we appealed to the maid, who proved herself
equal to the occasion. She managed to borrow a wheel-
barrow. On this our luggage was packed and borne off,
not to the mail, however, but by mistake to the cheap
coach, which started about the same time. Imparting to
us this provoking piece of news, the maid added that she
had already dispatched the lad who had committed the
error to set it right. I ran after him to ensure rectifica-
tion, but found my interposition was not needed, and our
luggage reached the mail office in due time to be weighed
and packed. It is, however, an ill wind, &c., for this
mistake brought unexpected custom to the mail. In
lifting down our trunks for transference from the coach,
a strap in the rickety vehicle gave way, whereby the un-
fortunate driver fell and was hurt. The accident so much

414 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

alarmed two of his passengers that — though not ladies —
they took the liberty . of changing their minds, and
travelled by the mail to Hobarton.

We quitted Launceston by an admirable road, the pro-
duct of convict-labour. Our route lay among wooded
hills interspersed with cultivated fields and pasture ; but
the farming was generally of an inferior order. Sweetbriar
ran riot over the fields. This shrub is not indigenous to
Tasmania, but its seeds were introduced probably in hay
imported in the early days of the colony. A great
nuisance to the farmers, the sweetbriar was pleasant
enough to us, rendering the atmosphere fragrant with its
odour. The air w'as delicious, and when the sun had set,
a brilliant moon bathed the landscape in floods of light.
As we advanced the scenery became flatter and less
attractive.

Notwithstanding our rapid motion, having the roomy
coach to ourselves we managed to obtain some sleep ; but

I could not regret being roused by N soon after dawn,

just as we were crossing the Derwent at Bridge water.
The lake-like character of the scenery on the Tamar was
here repeated. The Derwent, an arm of the sea as high
as Hobarton, though very different, its shores being
less verdant and more bold in character, has claims to
beauty equal or nearly so to those of Sydney harbour itself.
Our road for the remaining sixteen miles of our journey
lay almost along its banks, and we entered the capital
while it was still early this lovely summer morning. The
gardens were brilliant with flowers ; geraniums grew in
great bushes, and blossomed with a luxuriance rarely if
ever seen in England. Before us Mount Wellington
reared his head to the blue sky, while town and river were
bathed in southern sunshine. Mount Wellington, how-
ever, is not always so complaisant. At times he wraps
himself so completely in clouds that not a vestige of him
can be discerned ; on one or two of the six mornings we were
in Hobarton he thus retired from view. It is reported
that the Duke of Edinburgh remarked when he visited
Tasmania, that having been told Mount Wellington rises

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA . 415

above Hobarton he implicitly believed such to be the
case, but that he could not verify the fact from his own
observation, as unfortunately he had never once seen the
mountain himself.

The public buildings in Hobarton, as in Launceston, are
handsome, but the town itself has few pretensions to
beauty. Its situation, however, on the lower slopes of
Mount Wellington, with the lovely Derwent at its feet,
leaves nothing to be desired; and Tasmanians may be
justly proud of their Government House, a building of
striking appearance, the foundation stone of which was
laid by Sir John Franklin. It stands sufficiently high
above the river to afford fine views from the windows, and
has especially handsome and commodious reception-rooms.
Close by are the Botanic Gardens, twenty-one acres in
extent, to which admission is free. They command ex-
quisite views of river and mountains; and in this genial
climate the trees and plants gathered from almost all
parts of the world come to perfection.

Hobarton possesses an extensive forest-like park, the
Queen's Domain, in which there are pleasant walks and
drives. Near its entrance is the High School, opened in
1851. for boys of all religious denominations. Tasmania
is too" poor a colony to support a University. But the
State gives annually two scholarships of the yearly value
of 200?., and tenable for four years; one of the con-
ditions being that the holder shall enter a University in
the United Kingdom. A cricket-ground lies hard by,
in which the Tasmanians are shortly to try their skill
against the All England Eleven.

The harbour is spacious ; and on its broad quays we saw
huge stacks of roofing-shingles, large quantities of which
used to be imported by the other Australasian colonies ;
but now corrugated iron appears to have taken their
place. The museum is very interesting, with its stuffed
animals and its relics of the aborigines. There we saw a
complete skeleton, probably ten feet high, of the New
Zealand Moa with its long upright neck, the giraffe of the
feathered tribe. One of the curiosities is an illustrated

416 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

Proclamation issued to the natives by Governor Davey in
the year 1816. They had stated that for lack of the
English language they could not understand the meaning
of his proclamations, and to insure their comprehension of
the measures he intended to pursue in governing them, he
had the one prepared which is now preserved in the
museum. An engraving of it is given in Sir C. Dilke's
* Greater Britain,' but as his text makes no allusion to it
I will describe it here. It consists of four separate
designs on a sheet of paper not larger than foolscap. At
the top a white and a black man are standing arm-in-
arm, each holding a dog by a string. Side-by-side with
them a white and a black child hold each a hand of
the other. On the same level a white woman has a
black baby in her arms, while a black woman holds a
white baby in the same position. Beneath this a British
officer is depicted shaking hands with a native chief, each
followed by representatives of their respective nations.
The third design consists of two parts; on one side a
black is seen spearing a white, who has already received
two spears in his body, while the black is in the act of dis-
charging a third ; on the other the murderer is being
hanged, the body of his victim lying close by. The fourth
and last design is a similar representation, but with the
actors reversed, a white man being the slayer and a black
the slain.

It would have been well if the just and humane treat-
ment portrayed in this proclamation had been carried
into effect. On the contrary, unhappily, our dealings with
the aborigines of Tasmania are a blot on our national
character. The race is now extinct with the exception of one
old woman, supposed by some persons to have been a chief-
tainess. She is well cared for at the expense of the colony,
and lives in a family at Hobarton, who are paid, I heard,
60Z. a year for her support. Her native name is Truganini,
but she is equally well known by that of Lalla Kookh.
We were in lodgings at Hobarton next door to where she
lived, and as she often came into our landlady's kitchen we
had the opportunity of making her acquaintance. She is

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 417

a hale, healthy-looking old woman, short, and rather
stout. A scarlet handkerchief tied round her head,
leaving her grey locks partially visible, gave her quite a
picturesque appearance; the rest of her attire was of
prosaic European fashion. She spoke a little English, and
accepted with apparently much gratification sixpence for
the purchase of tobacco. I was advised to make my
offering small, and perhaps even this sum would have
been better withheld, as there was considerable danger of
her spending it in drink. Our landlady said that on the
occasion of one of Lalla Kookh's visits, when she (the
landlady) had a black eye, the result of an accident,
Truganini enquired if her husband had given it her.
Answering in the negative, the landlady asked if Lalla
Rookh's husband had ever given her black eyes ? " Oh
yes, a thousand," was the reply. I told the old woman I
had come a very long way across the sea. She asked if I
had come from Oyster Cove — about twenty-two miles
distant. I believe this voyage had been her longest, and
most probably her only sea experience. She had lately
paid a visit to Government House, and when introduced to
the Governor had poked him in the chest, saying at the
same time, " Too much jacket, too much jacket," implying
thereby that his Excellency was becoming too stout.

I was desirous to see the convict establishments of the
island, painfully notorious in the annals of crime and
punishment; and every facility for visiting these and
every other institution was most kindly afforded me by
the members of the Government. Port Arthur, however,
sixty miles from Hobarton, and only to be reached by a
sailing vessel — the Government schooner — was too distant
to admit of my going there during the short time I re-
mained in Tasmania. All who yet remain of the Imperial
prisoners sent to Van Diemen's Land until, in 1853,
transportation was discontinued, are now detained there ;
but 1 heard from Mr. Kennerley, the Prime Minister,
that the establishment is to be broken up. The prisoners
will be brought to Hobarton, where, m the House of

2 E

418 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

Correction, there is ample space for their accommodation,
and the land they have hitherto occupied will be sold.

When every convict shall have completed his sentence,
and not one remains in the island, years must yet elapse
before Tasmania can recover from the effects of the fatal
mistake the English Government committed in adopt-
ing transportation. The colony acted with far-seeing
wisdom when, at the cost of a serious diminution both in
revenue and trade, it put an end to a system which was
involving it in moral ruin. Though the mother country
strongly resisted the refusal of her colonies to continue to
receive her criminals, this refusal has not inflicted the
injury upon her she expected ; on the contrary, it has con-
ferred an important benefit upon her through the criminals
themselves. Forced to retain them in her midst, their
presence has compelled her, in order to repress their evil-
doing, to amend her laws and adopt a more rational treat-
ment of these offenders. The result of this course of action
has shown, notwithstanding the imperfect manner in which
it has been carried into effect, that the diminution of crime,
by means of the reformation of the criminal, is not only
practicable, but that it is in a large degree certain of attain-
ment in proportion to the fitness of the measures employed
to secure it.

I visited the local prisons at Hobarton with the Colonial
Treasurer. The " Cascades," so called from its neighbour-
hood to a waterfall in a pretty glen at the foot of Mount
Wellington, was erected by the Imperial Government for
the reception of female convicts. No longer required for
this purpose, the extensive ranges of building, in which
there appears to be ample space, are used as a House
of Correction for female colonial prisoners, an Asylum
for paupers, a Depot for orphan and neglected children,
and a Reformatory for boys. Like all prisons I have
visited in the Australasian colonies, it is beautifully clean.
The prisoners are employed in washing and sewing, but
chiefly in the former occupation. Washing is taken in,
and as far as 1 could see, is well done. Some of the women
are in solitary confinement; and if this punishment be

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 419

inflicted for short periods it is undergone in cells partially
darkened : I saw two young girls thus placed. These pri-
soners are generally occupied in picking oakum. Those
employed in the laundry, and I believe those engaged in
needlework, are in association ; but room being plentiful,
every woman sleeps in a cell by herself. There is no
school ; and I was sorry to observe that no means exist for
introducing artificial light into the cells into which the
prisoners are locked at 6 P.M. The Reformatory for boys
occupies a separate quadrangle of the vast building, and
contained thirty pupils at the time of my visit. They
live quite apart from the other inmates of the Cascades,
and are employed in cultivating land beyond the prison-
gates. Schooling is provided for them, and each boy sleeps
in a cell to himself ; he is locked in at seven o'clock in the
evening, and rises from bed at five in the morning.

The boys were at play when I saw them ; they looked
healthy, but presented a dirty and uncared-for appear-
ance. I learned that the institution is not considered
successful. Its location in a gaol is a great disadvantage,
and may induce the feeling I noticed among the boys, that
they are brought to the institution to be punished rather
than reformed ; individuals among them, in answer to
questions, spoke of the offences which had caused their
admission to the reformatory as deeds they felt somewhat
proud of having accomplished. It may be said in extenua-
tion of the choice of such a locality for the school, that
Tasmania is now a poor colony, and it was very tempting
to utilise a building ready to hand rather than incur the
expense of renting or erecting a new one.

The asylum for male and female paupers is in another
portion of the building, and contains now a hundred and
forty-seven men and one hundred and five women. They
appear well cared for and kindly treated. Some are quite
bed-ridden, others are able to perform the work of the
institution. A female prisoner is the cook. The inmates
are allowed to receive their food raw, if they choose,
and cook it for themselves ; and some among them avail
themselves of this permission. They may also enliven

2 E 2

420 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

the portion of the wall allotted to each with woodcuts and
other little decorations. One old blind woman can play
on a harmonium which stands in her ward, and amuses
herself and her companions with her music. She was
gratified by our listening to her performance.

The children, eighteen in number and all little, are
apart from the bulk of the prisoners, and a school is pro-
vided for them ; but one of the women has them in charge.
Some are the offspring of prisoners ; the others are either
neglected or orphans, and I conclude are only brought
to the Cascades to await their final disposal, by being
boarded-out or sent to the Queen's Asylum for destitute
children, supported by Government.

I could not visit this institution, as some of the pupils
were suffering from scarlet fever. The inmates at the
end of 1873 numbered between three and four hundred,
having diminished considerably during the previous three
years. This was partly attributed to the increased out-
door relief given to indigent families, but also to the fact
that applications for admission receive a more thorough
investigation than they did under the Imperial regime*
If it be discovered that the circumstances of the parents
have improved, children who have been admitted are
returned to their care. When relief is given to indigent
families, the condition that the children shall attend school
is generally annexed, though rarely enforced ; but the
Report just quoted recommends that stringent measures
be adopted to compel attendance.

I did not hear a satisfactory account of the results
attained by the Queen's Asylum. The evils of bringing
up children together in large numbers, so fatal at home,
are not less disastrous in Tasmania, and have induced the
Government to consider the advisability of adopting board-
ing-out. The Public Charities' Commissioners say : " The
occasional adoption of the system, according to the dis-
cretion of a careful and responsible administrator, would
be expedient, and to this extent we are at present led to

* ' Report of the Royal Commission on Public Charities.' Tasmania, 1871.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 421

recommend it." At the time of my visit it had been intro-
duced, forty children having been placed out in the suburbs
of Hobarton. No ladies' committees had, however, been
established; but the Governor of Tasmania assured me
he considered the friendly supervision of the children by
ladies interested in their welfare to be indispensable to the
success of the experiment, and the Prime Minister told me
he hoped their co-operation would be obtained. I heard
that, as a class, respectable foster-parents do not exist in
Tasmania, an alleged fact attributed to the convict ele-
ment being yet strong in the island. It must be remem-
bered that a similar belief in the lack of suitable persons
at home was almost universally expressed in England
when the general adoption of the system was first advo-
cated, but that it has proved groundless wherever the
plan has been brought into operation. Although the cir-
cumstances of the mother country differ somewhat from
those of the colony, there is fair reason to hope that in the
latter also, as time goes on, the want will be supplied.*

The House of Correction in Hobarton, formerly occupied
by convicts from England, is now used as a gaol for men
under short sentences. I found it exquisitely clean ; but,
though very large, there appeared little classification of the
prisoners. Those who can be trusted are taken out to work
in the Queen's Domain, the gardens of Government House,
and other public property. 1 met a gang one day walking to
their employment. The " old hands " who have friends in
the colony are not permitted to work outside the prison,
as it is impossible to prevent their escape. These are
employed in stone-breaking within the prison-yards ; some
are in association, but others (convicted of brutal or dis-
graceful crimes) are separate. No school exists in this
prison, and artificial light in the cells is also wanting.

In a house situated on one of the hills rising above
Hobarton, and commanding a lovely view of the Derwent,
is an Industrial school, opened in 1869, for which the

* We have been informed tliat at the end of 1874 boarding-out was in
successful operation in Tasmania.

422 WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRAL1A.

Boys' Home in London was the model. The lads, thirty
in number, cultivate the garden, attend to the cows, and
perform all the work of the house, which they keep exqui-
sitely clean. They also produce fruit and butter for sale :
none of the latter is consumed b'y themselves. A gardener
directs the out-door labour, while a man and his wife, the
master and matron, complete the staff. The lads, a bright,
healthy-looking happy group, are evidently well cared for
by their excellent superintendents. At the end of 1872
twelve boys had been placed out in service, ten of whom
are doing well.

The pupils appear to belong to precisely the same class
who enter industrial schools at home. They are either
orphans, or their parents are drunken and leading dis-
solute lives; or they are in extreme poverty. A poor man
suffering from illness and aware that his end was near,
heard that a school existed at Hobarton for the reception
of friendless lads. He walked thither from Launceston, a
distance of one hundred and twenty miles — a journey
which, in his weak state, occupied fourteen days — and
succeeded in placing his son in the Boys' Home. He set
out on his return, but strength failed, and he was found
dead in the bush, forty miles short of his destination.

The lads were called into the schoolroom during our
visit, where they sang cheerily, and performed their march-
ing evolutions with spirit and precision. They could also
inform me on a point on which I was ignorant, the exact
number of miles I was distant from England. The insti-
tution is excellently managed, and the treatment of the
boys by the master, who seems to regard them as his own
children, is both kind and judicious. It is evident that the
managers are imbued with the true spirit of philanthropy,
while the number of inmates is small enough to preserve
among them a real family feeling. The school impressed
me as the best of its kind that I saw in Australia.

The presence of scarlet fever in the Girls' Industrial
School, established in 1864, prevented me from visiting it.
Mrs. Du Cane and several other ladies take much interest
in this institution, and the members of the Public Charities'

WHA T WE SAW IN A USTRA LI A. 42o

Commission, say — " cleanliness pervaded the dormitories,
schoolrooms, and kitchen ; and the girls seemed healthy,
tractable, and properly cared for." * The managers have
long been desirous to acquire more suitable premises, and
are now taking active means for attaining this end.
Paying a call at Bishopscourt one afternoon, 1 found my-
self on entering the drawing-room in the midst of ladies
busily engaged in needlework ; and I learned that they
were preparing for a bazaar shortly to be held for the
purpose of raising funds to purchase a better house for the
school.

Our time permitted us to make only one or two of the
numerous excursions round Hobarton ; but we found
leisure one afternoon to reach Fern-tree Bower on Mount
Wellington. There, both fern-trees and the lesser tribe
grow in profusion, among gigantic gum-trees rising to a
height of between three and four hundred feet. Their
trunks are straight as arrows, and the foliage begins at an
altitude much too great for the shape of the leaves to be
distinguishable. They are longer in this species, the
Blue-gum (Eucalyptus globulus), than in any indigenous
to the continent of Australia. Between their huge trunks
we caught glimpses of the Derwent lying far beneath us.
Hobarton is supplied with water from Mount Wellington,
and in this ferny dell numerous rivulets are combined in
one channel, which conveys it to the city. Hard by, under
a grove of fern-trees, are placed tables and benches for
the accommodation of picnic parties, the favourite out-
door amusement of Australia. We gathered a frond from
one of these trees, and found it measured more than five
feet in length.

One morning we had a pleasant drive along the shores
of the Derwent towards the sea, catching a glimpse of
Briwie Island, which divides Storm Bay from D'Entre-
casteaux Channel, the two entrances to the harbour — the
latter so called from its discoverer, a French admiral,

' Report Public Charities' Commission, 1871.'

424 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

dispatched by his Government to ascertain the fate of La
Perouse. We had not time for an excursion to New Nor-
folk, thus named by the early inhabitants of Norfolk
Island. When compelled by the English Government, in
1808, to quit their settlement, they chose this spot in
Tasmania in which to found a new one, and gave it the
name of their former beloved home.

The salmon ponds are about six miles from New Norfolk,
where the ova, first brought to Tasmania in 1864, have
been successfully hatched. The fish, when reared, was
allowed to enter the Derwent for the purpose of visiting
the sea before spawning, according to its custom, and
never, until a year or two ago, was it known to return ;
thus raising the supposition that some inhabitants of the
salt-water, inimical to salmon, had devoured it. It is true
that fish were caught coming up the river believed by the
colonists to be salmon ; but on being sent home to a
European naturalist for verification, they were pronounced
by him to be some other kind offish. Again a second speci-
men, dispatched for the same purpose, was also declared
to be an impostor. On this occasion, however, the natu-
ralist made a mistake, which he afterwards corrected by
admitting the fish to be veritable salmon. Another, taken
in the Derwent shortly before my visit, I saw preserved in
spirits in the museum at Hobarton. The man who caught
it had, I understood, received the 301. reward offered by
the Tasmanian Government for the first salmon obtained
from that river.

The Derwent is longer and broader than European
salmon streams, and its banks are thickly wooded to the
water's edge. These circumstances render fishing difficult,
and persons who believe that salmon may be established
there contend that it must exist in enormous quantities
before it can be caught to any extent ; and some years,
they are of opinion, must elapse before the necessary
increase can take place to produce them. Meanwhile the
fact that real salmon has been caught ascending the Der-
went, affords promise of future success.

Our last excursion was to Glenorchie, about five miles

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 425

from Hobarton. We spent some pleasant hours there in
a garden teeming with English fruits, and more brilliant
with flowers than I had seen elsewhere, but which, I was
informed, had been much richer in blossoms a fortnight
earlier. How that conld be, however, when every plant
and every spray seemed one mass of flower, I could not
understand. English fruits grow in perfection in Tas-
mania, and preserves are made on a large scale as an
article of commerce. Great quantities are used on board
ship and in the bush. Last year a Melbourne jam-manu-
facturer came to Tasmania and made his preserves here ;
but this year the fruit, or at least a portion of it, is being
sent to Victoria. The friends we were visiting were then
contributing towards making up an order for five tons of
currants, raspberries, &c., to be shipped for Melbourne.

Hop-grounds, in luxuriant growth on this estate, extend
to the shores of the Derwent, whence we had a view of
Mount Direction, a fine wooded hill upon the opposite
bank. Mount Wellington is also a near neighbour —
perhaps a little too near, for on one occasion a landslip
rushing down the mountain side brought with it enormous
masses of dead wood which h;id destroyed half the hop-
grounds, and depositing a great portion of the debris in
the open space before the house of our host, had completely
blocked up his hall door.

Quitting Hobarton with great regret, we returned to
Launceston by the night mail, and sailed for Melbourne
the next day, January the 8th. Our departure, however,
was delayed by the tardiness of the tide. Had it risen
punctually it would have floated us out of the harbour at
the time fixed for starting. But tides are very uncertain
in these parts of the world, and we waited for more than
an hour before this had risen high enough for our require-
ments.

In going down the Tamar much of the landscape was
obscured by the smoke of bush-fires, which resembled a
thick fog, in various places shutting out the hills from our
view. Fires extending for many miles along the mountains
must have raged to produce the amount of smoke we saw.

426 WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRALIA .

A tidal mishap similar to that at Launceston awaited us
at Melbourne. Boats from the former town, instead of
disembarking their passengers at Sandridge or Williams-
town, ascend the Yarra to the city itself. As we approached
the river's mouth the water was so low that the narrow
channel, alone deep enough for our purpose, was difficult
to make. In endeavouring to enter it, despite vigorous
efforts to propel her in the right direction, our vessel stuck
in the mud. After some time spent in futile endeavours
to get us off, a boat was lowered, in which two of the
sailors rowed to another vessel lying near at anchor, and
placed one end of a rope (the other being fastened to our
ship) in the hands of some of its crew. These men pulled
stoutly ; and our engines being set to work, we were tugged
out of our unpleasant predicament, making the water
around black as Erebus with the mud we stirred up. The
•prow of our vessel being turned away from the Yarra, I
asked one of the sailors where we were going. " Round
the bay," he answered. At first I thought he meant
Hobson's Bay — the bay, par excellence, in the colony of
Victoria — and I looked forward with disgust to such a pro-
longation of our voyage. Fortunately, however, he alluded
to Williamstown Bay, a small inlet of the larger gulf;
but small as it was it sufficed to upset many of our fellow-
passengers, who had but just recovered from their sea-
sickness. When we had accomplished this circuit we hap-
pily made good our entrance into the Yarra, where, to-day,
all was smooth sailing ; but our additional voyage so
retarded our arrival, that the " Provedor " was obliged to
give the passengers their tea on board, a meal he had
fondly hoped they would enjoy on land.

On the 13th January, N and I had a third expe-
rience of the irregularity of the tide. Intending to leave
Melbourne for Adelaide, we were to start at two o'clock,
and precisely at that hour (for the ' Aldinga ' is very
punctual) the usual throbbing of the engine and general
bustle pervading the casting-off duly began ; but our efforts
to depart were vain. The tide was too low to float the
vessel, and we were told we must wait till G P.M. Even

WHAT WE 8 A W IN A USTBALIA. 427

then the water was still too low, and it was now announced
we could not start till nine o'clock the next morning.

At length, after nineteen hours' delay, the tide was
favourable, and once fairly off, so prosperous was our
voyage, that it was accomplished in forty-five instead of
forty-eight hours — a celerity, however, with which on this
occasion we would willingly have dispensed. We were
roused at 5 A.M. on the 16th with the intimation that we
had reached Port Adelaide. No train we found would
start for the city till half-past eight, and no breakfast at
all would be served on board. The world at Port Adelaide
was scarcely awake, and a weary interval passed before we
could obtain any food. Within two hours after the meal
we at length succeeded in procuring we rejoiced to find
ourselves at Hazelwood.

Since the foregoing chapter went to press, we have been
furnished, by the kindness of a friend, with the following
extracts concerning the means for higher education in
Tasmania : —

" Associate of Arts Degree. — This degree is open to
persons of any age, and of either sex.

" Exhibitions. — Two exhibitions of 20Z. each, tenable for
four years, at such schools as shall be named by the
parents or guardians, and approved by the Council, are
annually bestowed on boys under fourteen years of age,
who have not during the previous six months been pupils
of a Government School, and who have been resident in
the colony for two years immediately preceding.

" Gilclirist Scholarship. — A Scholarship of 100Z. per
annum, tenable for three years, either at the University
of Edinburgh, or at University College, London, is bi-
ennially awarded to the candidate who passes highest at
the matriculation examination of the University of London,
carried on at Hobarton. Candidates must have been
resident in Tasmania for five years or over, and be above
sixteen, and below twenty-two years of age." *

* ' Walch's Tasmanian Almanack for 1874.'

428 WHA T WE SA W IN A USTRA LI A.

CHAPTEE XXVI.

Great Heat at Adelaide — Weather — Australian Climate — Luminous
Atmosphere — Bush-fire — Christmas Gathering — Torrens Gorge —
Waterfall Gully — First P. & O. Boat at Glenelg — Celebration of the
event - — Our departure — West Australia — Albany — Schools — Abo-
rigines — Eepression of drunkenness — Final departure from Australia
— Bombay — Italy — Home again.

BEFOEE E • started for Tasmania I left Melbourne,

having, indeed, but an hour's interval between my return
from Williamstown on the 29th December, and embarking

for Adelaide with S at two o'clock that afternoon.

The 'Aldinga' is small enough to navigate the Yarra,
and takes her passengers on board, therefore, at Melbourne.
The river has no beauty below the capital, and the passage
down is only interesting from the fear of running on a
bank, alternating with the hope of escaping that calamity.
It befell us, and we stuck fast for some time, being at
length hauled off by the help of men and boats, the dis-
turbance of the mud caused by the operation raising
a horrible stench. This part of the Yarra is bordered
with factories, and the effect of their contributions to the
ordinary drainage, on a narrow and winding river may be
imagined.

No other adventure occurred, and we reached Port
Adelaide on the afternoon of the 31st. On landing, I at
once became aware of heat far exceeding any we had
experienced, with the exception of the hot wind at Mel-
bourne, during our stay either in New South Wales or
Victoria. It subsequently increased, and in January
1874, the thermometer at Hazelwood reached 113° in the
shade. It hung, however, against the house, and it was
thought the heat held by the brick wall, which was as

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 429

great — though the sun never shone upon it — as could
be pleasantly borne by the hand, may have somewhat
influenced the mercury.

New-comers rarely suffer from heat as much as those
who have been long in the colony, and to my sensations
even this degree scarcely exceeded what was agreeable.
I did not, indeed, attempt to go beyond the garden during
the middle of the day, and never put my head out of doors
without an umbrella. It is, however, considered an open
question whether the heat is not less felt by those who
pursue their ordinary occupations, uninfluenced by it, than
by those who seek to mitigate it, or avoid exertion while
it lasts. We heard gentlemen say that it was better to
go to business than to remain at home ; and one of our
lady-friends always chose the hottest weather for her
preserving. Her motive, however, was to escape wasting
a highly-prized luxury. Nothing could add, she argued,
to the misery of a hot day ; but she might avoid spoiling
a cool one. A hot Sunday, every one agreed, was the
ne plus ultra of wretchedness. A punkah was introduced
into one of the Adelaide churches this summer; but there
is little expectation of their being generally used, the
extreme variableness of the climate being a discourage-
ment to adopting arrangements which would be only
occasionally available. The high cost of service, also,
would prevent an extensive adoption of punkahs unless
they could be worked by machinery.

Within doors the temperature at Hazelwood was several
degrees below that marked by the thermometer outside.
This difference was secured by shutting every window,
and drawing down the blinds on the sunny side of the
house before sunrise, and keeping all thus closed until
the outer air had become cooler than that within. Some-
times this does not happen, even when the sun has set ;
and houses may remain shut up all night and for suc-
cessive days and nights, when the stagnation of the air,
in addition to the heat, becomes very exhausting. This,
however, is unusual ; and indeed some persons prefer the
comparative freshness obtained by opening windows, and

430 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

so allowing the air to circulate, to the lower temperature
maintained by keeping them closed.

People are sustained through the heat by the hope
of a change, which may come at any moment. Then
windows are thrown open, and every one's spirits rise in
proportion as the thermometer goes down. Most enjoy-
able weather usually follows a hot period, until another
comes round. But sometimes the change from extreme
heat is not to an agreeable coolness, but to what seems,
by contrast, absolute cold ; and as the fall in temperature
may take place in half an hour, it is an element of danger
to health, which has to be guarded against, so far as cir-
cumstances permit. For instance, flannel should always
be worn next the skin ; and warmer clothing should be
put on directly the increasing coolness makes itself un-
pleasantly felt. Thus even an hour's drive from home
should not be taken without a supply of wraps to throw
on at a moment's notice.

One morning I noticed an all-pervading smell of bonfire,
and an unusual haziness in the atmosphere. Inquiring
what these indicated, I was told they showed that a large
tract of trees was burning within, probably, a few miles.
Later in the day smoke appeared in more distinct masses
above the neighbouring hills, and it became probable
that we might soon witness the magnificent, but awful
spectacle of a bushfire. For two or three days the smoke
hung in the air, and we heard of fires at some miles
distance. The heat, however, conquered my desire to go
to see them ; and they never came to us, except that one
evening in the dusk a gleam, like that of a giant glow-
worm, appeared upon the hill-side; then another and
another. The light crept hither and thither, but never
kindled to a blaze ; and next evening it was gone.

When we were leaving South Australia for New South
Wales. 'many were the lugubrious warnings we received of
the trials we were about to undergo in exchanging the
dry and buoyant air of Adelaide for the moist and depress-
ing atmosphere of Sydney. Arrived there, every one on
hearing whence we came compared Adelaide to an oven,

WE A T WE SAW IN A USTRAL1A. 431

and congratulated us on having left her scorching plains
behind for the soft breezes and verdure of their harbour.
Meanwhile Melbourne, '.vhich we had heard pitied at
Adelaide for the inferiority of its climate, is satisfied it
possesses by far the best of the three. There we were
assured that Sydney is enervating; while a particularly
hot, dusty, and disagreeable day was always characterised
as "Adelaide weather." All, however, agreed in con-
sidering the climate of Tasmania perfect.

Our own judgment in regard to the three capitals would
give the palm to Sydney, but her inhabitants candidly
admitted that we were fortunate in the season, which was
cooler than is usual in November and December. At Mel-
bourne we had many very enjoyable days, " hot but not
too hot," as Mr. Woodhouse might have said ; while nothing
can excel the bright loveliness of a South Australian
spring day, unless it be the soft radiance of her summer
nights, when the moon and lesser planets, like little moons,
seem to hang from the violet sky. Colours are perfectly
distinguishable on such a night ; indeed scarlet and green
are almost as vivid as in broad day of an English winter.

However much the climate of Australia may differ in
some respects from that of our island, in one — its variable-
ness— there seemed to us nothing to choose between
them. Of course we were told that our visit was made
in an abnormal season (our general experience as travel-
lers teaches us that abnormal seasons always prevail),
and that had we come in any other year it would have
rained and been fine, or cold or hot, according to rule.
As it was we could discover no rule upon which any
reliance could be placed — unless it were the "rule of
contrary." Kain would come when least expected, arid, as
it seemed to us, a great deal ottener than was wanted,
though when the rainy season was past we were assured
the proper number of inches had not fallen. Some friends
who claimed to be weatherwise used to tell us that when
*' clouds banked up in the west at sunset it always meant
rain next day." If it did, " it " must have been as vari-
able and changeable as even the female human animal,

432 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTEALIA.

for the following morning would quite as often be bright
and dry as not.

The meteorological record for past years shows indeed
very considerable variation in the weather; and it is
believed that the increase of cultivation in addition to all
other influences is gradually affecting the climate.

The characteristic in the atmosphere of Australia which
most charmed us was its extreme luminousness, whence
come the wonderful expanse of her skies, and the grandeur
of her cloud-architecture. The clearness of the air and
the affluence of light giving brilliancy to every colour and
distinctness to every form, have a wonderfully exhilarating
effect. " This glorious canopy of light and blue," as fitly
expresses the sense of exultation with which one drinks
in the inexpressible beauty of the Australian sky, as the
poet himself could have experienced under that of Spain.

From our personal experience we should be inclined to
suspect that the bracing effect of the climate one hears so
much of rarely extends beyond the feeling just described,
for we ourselves were rarely sensible of it in any other
form. But the vast amount of manual labour which
has been achieved in Australia, and the busy life the
colonists lead, demonstrate a vigour and industry incom-
patible with enervation, and we can only infer that our
sojourn was not long enough to acclimatise us.

On January 17th the Christmas family gathering, post-
poned until we had all returned, took place. The party
being always a very large one, dinner is laid on this
occasion in the principal verandah, half of which affords
ample space. Strangely incongruous to us seemed the
usual Christmas fare amid the freshly-gathered summer
fruit which covered the table ; and no less so the croquet
and sauntering in the shade which followed the feast.

Already while in Melbourne we had secured our cabin
by the first homeward mail-steamer which would call at
Glenelg, and now but a fortnight remained of our stay in
Australia. It was chiefly spent in farewell visits ; but our
friends would not let us depart without seeing the Torrens.
Gorge and the lovely scenery of Waterfall Gully, neither

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 433

more than a few miles from Hazelwood. Indeed, as
often happens, their very proximity had prevented our
visiting them before. They could be seen at any time,
and had thus been postponed to more distant objects of
interest.

A weir across the Torrens, where it issues from be-
tween lofty precipitous banks, forms a miniature lake.
Hence the water is conveyed to a reservoir nearer to
Adelaide through a huge pipe, which looks as it follows
the bends of the river like a gigantic snake, and sadly
mars the beauty of a spot which formerly must have been
as lovely as the valley above this disfigurement still is.

In Waterfall Gully are two cascades. The lower of
these emerging from among trees falls over a lofty wall
of rock into a narrow grassy dell ; the upper, a shallower
fall, is completely embowered in terns, such as grow only
under glass at home.

For thirteen years South Australia has been constrained
sorely against her will to dispatch a steamer eleven hundred
miles to King George's Sound for the conveyance of her
letters. In celebration of the new contract coming into
effect, which would bring the mail-steamer to her very
door, an arrangement regarded as of great importance to
the colony, the captain and officers of the ' Pera ' were
invited to a banquet at Glenelg, presided over by the
Mayor, and at which the Governor and the leading
gentlemen of the province were also guests.

Great numbers of persons flocked to Glenelg to behold
the unaccustomed spectacle of the ocean steamer, and
many went on board to visit her where she lay a couple of
miles from shore. We reached the little town by an after-
noon train, and found the streets decorated with flags,
and everything wearing a gala air ; and so crowded was
the jetty that it was difficult to make our way to the
further end whence we were to embark, between the
groups with which it was thronged. Among them we
encountered many friends and acquaintances, and amid
renewed farewells we reached the boat, which conveyed

2 F

434 WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTBALIA.

us to the *Pera.' Contrary to expectation she did not
start until late at night, and as we lay off the shore a
splendid moonlight brightened our last view of South
Australia. Next morning land was out of sight!

We reached Albany about 11 P.M. on February 4th,
and as our ship would sail again at noon on the following
day, we hastened on shore next morning, having but scant
time for a glimpse — all that was now possible — of West
Australia. The little town is surrounded by scrub, or is
rather built actually upon it, unreclaimed land inter-
mingling with the houses and gardens. A closer inspec-
tion modified our previous conclusion as to its neatness,
revealing indeed among its poorer houses a general
untidiness invisible from the deck of the steamer.

Our first stopping place was the post office, both to
inquire for letters from home and to dispatch others to
Adelaide. While we were transacting our business, which
involved the purchase of stamps and some writing, a little
boy approached with a letter he desired to post. Not
wishing to detain the child, we made room for him to
come up to the window ; when, with a courtesy we shall
always remember in association with West Australia, lie
drew back, saying, " No, you are ladies, and must be served
first."

Continuing our walk we soon reached a plain but
substantial school-house, and on entering found the
master giving instruction to boys and girls together.
Mixed schools prevail in West Australia. Out of the
sixty Government or public schools in the colony — to
which " necessitous persons " are admitted free — there are
but six in which the sexes are divided.*

The Albany schoolmaster told us that several of his
pupils live as far as five miles off, at the same time
pointing out quitn a little lad who had come that dis-
tance. Some arrive in carts, others ride on horseback,
"for," added he, "our children must learn to be inde-

* Bluebook, ' West Australia,' for 1872.

WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. 435

pendent." The scholars were healthy-looking, and had
an air of self-reliance pleasant to see.

Quitting the school we passed through, the township,
noticing outside a house a young kangaroo so tame that
it was evidently a pet animal, and meeting vendors of
curiosities on the alert to sell their wares to the strangers.
Here also were a few aborigines, looking much more like
savages than any we had seen elsewhere. Their shaggy
straggling hair hung down on their shoulders, and their
only garment was a blanket, leaving their legs and feet
bare. Judging, however, from what was related to us
of the natives of this part of Australia, they must
be shrewd and quick-witted. They seem also to possess
qualities which cause those taken into the houses of the
colonists to be treated as petted children, and their
most provoking misdeeds to be pardoned over and
over again. The following anecdote is illustrative of the
sharpness of these children of nature. A lady who had
a little native girl as her servant had occasion one day to
call her away from her dinner, and during the child's
absence the cat made off with her food. On returning to
the kitchen ahe discovered the loss, when her mistress
overheard her reproving the thief in severe terms. 4l You
wicked woman," she said, "you steal my dinner — you no
go to heaven." The lady took an opportunity of explain-
ing to her little maid that a cat must not be addressed as
a woman, adding that cats do not go to heaven. " Yes
they do," rejoined the girl ; " last Sunday teacher said
God put the goats on one side and the sheep on the
other, and if sheep go to heaven why not cats?"

We are not aware that any missions have been estab-
lished by the Government for the aborigines; but one exists
about eighty miles from Perth, under the management
of monks of the Benedictine Order. We learned from
Mr. Malcolm Fraser (Surveyor-General of the Colony),
that it was founded many years ago, by one of their
number, a Spaniard, named Calvados, who had formerly
been in the army of Spain, and much at Court. He
is a fine musician, and turns his gift to practical account.

2 F 2

43() WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA.

A bullock-dray being needed at the mission, he raised the
money for its purchase by giving a concert. The institu-
tion is agricultural, and self-supporting, excepting some
assistance from Government. The Pope has made Sal-
vados a bishop in acknowledgment cf his missionary
labours, which, as only the civilisation and not the conver-
sion of the blacks is attempted, affords remarkable testi-
mony to the really Catholic spirit of his Holiness. It is to
this creation that the presence in the colony of two
Koman Catholic bishops is owing, one having previously
been sent there as head of his church in West Australia.

Among the aborigines at Albany some had boomerangs
to sell, or to throw for the amusement of strangers. We
had not seen them before in the hands of natives, and
should have been interested in witnessing the use of this
curious weapon, and glad, also, to buy some to bring
home ; but the certainty that the money we should give
would be spent in drink deterred us.

Mr. Hare, the resident police magistrate whom we met
on the quay, in speaking to us of the aboriginals, remarked,
" The visit of the mail-steamer always brings business to
my Court." Must the contact of the Anglo-Saxons with
uncivilised races always result in inflicting evil on the
savage !

Shortly before meeting with Mr. Hare we had seen
posted in the windows of the Court-house the following
notices, names, of course, filling the spaces : —

West

Australia
to wit.

" NOTICE.

" Publicans and all others, are hereby forbidden to sell
or supply during

months from the date of this notice, with Spirituous or
Fermented Liquors, or Liquor part whereof is Spirituous
or Fermented, under a penalty of Five Pounds (£5) in accor-
dance with Act of Council, 20 Viet. No. 1, Sec. 65 & 66.

" Given under our hands at Albany, in the said Colony
this

"(Signed)

WHA T WE SA W IN- A USTRALIA. 437

"RESIDENTS' OFFICE.

" Albany, 187 .

has this day been prohibited

from being supplied with Spirituous, or Fermented Liquors, during
months from this date.
"(Signed)

Mr. Hare assured us that the law, of which these notices
are the exponents, and which is in force throughout the
colony, has a considerable effect in repressing drunken-
ness. Even in the country districts, where, of course, the
police force is small, it is not inoperative.

Willingly should we have remained longer on shore,
but the captain's gig, in which we were to return to the
' Pera,' was ready to start. Bidding a long farewell to
Australia, where we had spent ten pleasant months, we
quickly reached our vessel, and soon were again out
at sea.

Seventeen days after quitting King George's Sound we
landed at Bombay, and before pursuing our homeward
journey spent a delightful fortnight in India. Great
indeed is the contrast between the two countries ! Among
the still sparse inhabitants of Australia we had beheld all
the institutions of the mother-country, reproduced with an
even more extended development of the principle of self-
government; and, though independent, her children yet
gladly acknowledging the filial tie. India, teeming with
population the representatives of peoples and empires
differing in every respect from the Anglo-Saxon, yields an
often reluctant submission to a mere handful of an alien
race. Solemn, indeed, are the responsibilities imposed
upon us by the exercise of such vast and almost despotic
power!

Fearing a too early return to an English spring after
our sojourn in hot climates, we tarried again in Egypt
and in Italy. The stupendous remains of ancient civilisa-
tions which here also surrounded us, and more especially,
perhaps, the sense of intense realism created by the reve-
lation of the minute circumstances of dailv life in ancient

438 WE A T WE SA W IN A USTRAL1A.

Rome, brought before us by the excavations proceeding
in her midst, seemed to banish Australia to the region of
imagination — an illusion further strengthened, may be,
by finding the ordinary affairs of life proceeding precisely
as when we had embarked on our long expedition. This
feeling of the unreality of the period that had intervened,
clung to us as we neared home ; and when the friends
awaited us at Charing Cross to greet our return, who
from the same spot had cheered our departure, it needed
the added height of the before tiny nephew to convince
us we had, indeed, been far away ; and that what we saw
in Australia is no dream, but a very substantial reality !

THE END.

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